A Literate Passion
by MugenDemon
Summary: On his first day of classes at his new university, Naruto saves a boy with two red fangs tattooed on his face from being beaten up for being gay. The two soon discover a shared love of books, among other things. Will they remain friends or will something more develop? And if so, will it change their friendship for good or bad? [please, please, PLEASE review!]
1. Chapter 1

**Part I**

Naruto had awoke the morning of his first day of classes at the Cosmo-Demonic Coal-Burning University of North America determined not to be late for a single class the entire semester. He had transferred to the university from a local community college after doing two years there. He planned to complete his degree at the university over the next few years. As he wandered around Browne Hall looking for his classroom he started to get nervous.

_Come on, it's got to be around here somewhere_ he thought to himself.

He rounded a corner and stopped dead in his tracks. At the far end of the hall, two boys seemed to be confronting a third. The boy had thick, shaggy brown hair and brown eyes, was fairly tall, and had two red fangs tattooed on his face, one on each cheek. One of the other boys grabbed the front of his shirt and shoved him against the brick wall, pulling his other hand back in a fist.

"Don't ever think about making a fool out of me again." he said.

"HEY!" Naruto yelled, causing the three to suddenly look up. "Leave him alone!"

Naruto quickly traversed the length of the hallway and grabbed the boy's arm.

"Don't waste your time," the boy said to Naruto. "This guy's a fucking fag."

"So?" Naruto challenged him, stepping between the two, clenching his own hands into fists. "You're bourgeois trash, but I'm not going to kick your ass for it, unless you stick around."

"What!?" the guy said, not understanding.

"Come on," the second boy said. "They probably want to make out. I don't want to see that shit. Let's get out of here."

The kid let go of the tall boy's shirt and the two walked off down the hallway.

"Wow," the fang-boy said. "You know what 'bourgeois' means, and you used it in a sentence. I'm impressed."

"Haaa..." Naruto laughed. "Well, I read a lot, so my vocabulary is probably not that of your normal college boy's. Are you really gay?"

"Hmm, are you going to beat me up now too?"

"N-no!" Naruto stammered. "That wasn't what I meant. I mean, it's cool. That drives me crazy though. People are so ignorant."

"Yeah, I'm gay. And thanks for saying something, that was cool. At least they didn't dump me in Mercury."

"Hahaha," Naruto laughed. "Poor Anthony Blanche! He put himself in there though."

"Wow, you've read _Brideshead_? I'm really impressed now."

"Yeah, like I said, I read all the time. I liked it a lot."

"Me too. I'm Inuzuka Kiba by the way. Thanks again for what you did."

"No problem! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you. I don't know anyone here at all, except my two dorm roommates, who I've only known for two days. I transferred from a small college that's several hours away. Do you live on campus too?"

"I have an apartment off campus," Kiba answered.

"That's cool," Naruto said. "Do you have any other classes today? I've got Advanced Comp then a two hour break, if you're around, want to hang out between classes? Maybe show me around campus?"

"Sure, OK," Kiba said. "I've got nothing until this afternoon. Normally I'd just go home, but I can stick around, that would be cool."

"Great!" Naruto said. "Hey...ummm, I'm trying to find room 211, do you know where it might be?"

"Yeah, you're actually on the wrong floor. Browne Hall is the only screwed up building on campus. You know how the courtyard is sunk down? Well, Browne was here before they did that, so the bottom floor is all rooms that start with zero. This, the second floor, has room that start with one, and the next floor up is where you'll find the two-hundred labeled rooms."

"Ohhhh, thanks!" Naruto said. "I'd have been looking around all day."

"Yeah, I don't know why they just didn't re-number the rooms. That was stupid. Just remember, all the other buildings in this quad are numbered how you would expect them to be."

Great, thanks for the info," Naruto said, then realized how long the two had been talking. "OH SHIT! What time is it? I'm late now...shit, shit, shit! Hey, where can I meet you after I get done with this comp class?"

"Take a hike over to Amory Hall, the art building. There's a student lounge area on the second floor that hardly anyone ever goes to. I'll be there. Or text me, here, let me give you my number."

Kiba quickly scribbled his number on a scrap of paper and handed it to Naruto.

"Text me from class so I'll have your number." he said as Naruto ran off for the stairs.

_Shit, shit, shit_ Naruto thought as he ran up the stairs, two at a time. _And you were so early so you wouldn't be late. You just had to stop and help the cute guy, didn't you? _

Kiba picked up his messenger bag from where he had dropped it when he had been in danger of being assaulted.

_Huh_ he thought to himself as he started to walk out of Browne Hall and across the courtyard over to Amory Hall, which was in the next quadrangle over on campus. _That was some kind of record, almost getting my ass beat after my first class on the first day of the semester. Usually it takes at least a week._

It was the last week of August. The sun was shining and big white clouds hung suspended in the blue sky. Kiba smiled to himself, he kept his head down as he walked across campus to avoid eye contact with any of the other students.

_Naruto was really hot _he thought as he settled down into one of the overstuffed chairs in the Amory lounge and pulled a book of Rimbaud's poetry from his messenger bag. _His blonde hair was so sexy, and the black v-neck and orange shorts he was wearing showed his muscles very advantageously...I should have checked out his ass. His blue eyes are so dreamy..._

_"You know he's not gay though," _Kiba's inner conscience said. _"He's straight as an arrow. He just happens to be open-minded enough to speak up when he sees something going on that he feels isn't right."_

_Blaaaaaaahhhh_ Kiba replied to himself _I'm sure you're right. I only fall in love with straight guys anyway. It sucks...what the fuck is wrong with me?_

_"You are so low key you can't deal with your average flamboyant homosexual male."_

_Ugh, you're right._ Kiba cringed involuntarily.

_"You spend too much time alone too, you need to get out more, meet new people, get your face out of your books all the time. Hang out with Naruto, maybe it'll be good for you."_

_Yeah, he seems really cool...I'll have to see, I've only talked to him for a few minutes. It would be nice to have a boyfriend again though too instead of just maybe a friend...well maybe. It's been three years since I was dumped._

"_You know, it's also a safety mechanism...you fall in love with the people you know you can't have, that way you won't get hurt again."_

_Enough!_

Kiba's phone suddenly began vibrating on the table next to him, indicating he had received a new text message. He unlocked the screen and opened the text window.

**hey, it's Naruto. Hope you're still around, i'm getting outta class now, short day. see u soon. **

A second text came as he was reading the first one.

**oh, here's my number too so dont lose it. :)**

Kiba chuckled to himself and sent a text back to Naruto after saving the number to his contacts.

**Lulz...your number is save to my phone now, so no worries. And i'm still here, see u in a few**

A short while later Naruto came through the heavy fire doors of the stairwell and looked around. He saw Kiba sitting in the otherwise deserted lounge.

"Hi" he said walking up to the brown-haired boy. "How's it going?"

"Oh, it's going. Are you hungry? All I ate was yogurt this morning."

"Yeah, I am actually. Want to go get some lunch?"

"Oh yeah," Kiba said, gathering his things up and putting them back in his bag. "But let's not go to the Student Commons. There's some smaller places around campus that are more quiet."

"I didn't know that," Naruto admitted. "You need to fill me in on all these secrets. Are you also a third-year?"

"No, I'm actually a second-year." Kiba answered. "And I'm not sure I should reveal all my secrets to you in one day! We've just met afterall."

Naruto laughed and the two walked out of the building and started to head over to the Science Quad, which was located on the complete opposite side of the large university's campus.

"There's this sandwich place over there, I guess so the sci and engineering kids don't have to come all the way back here to eat. It's soooo good."

"Cool," Naruto said. "What class did you have this morning? Let me know if that asshole tries to do anything to you again."

"Algebra," Kiba said. "And don't worry, I'm actually transferring out of that class because I want to take an Ancient Civilizations course instead, for part of my history requirement. I despise math. I just went today so I could have the professor sign my transfer slip."

"Ok, good, I was worried he might try to pull some shit on you again." Naruto said as they reached the sandwich shop and went in.

Kiba looked at the blonde boy sideways, but didn't reply. They sat their bookbags down at a table near the window and went up to the counter to order. Kiba ordered a club sandwich with potato chips and Naruto ordered a giant Italian sub with Cool Ranch Doritos.

"We got here just in time," Kiba said. "In about twenty minutes, this place will be packed."

As they waited for their orders to come up, they talked about different classes and what their majors were and where they were from.

"And what are you currently reading for fun?" Kiba asked Naruto after they had got their sandwiches and were now eating.

"I'm in the middle of _The Romance of the Three Kingdoms_," Naruto said. "It's all ancient Chinese wars and political drama, but the fights are epic."

"That sounds interesting," Kiba said. "I've never heard of it. Let me know about it when your finished. Maybe I'll pick up a copy if you think it's worth it."

They two new friends talked for a while longer then headed back to the other side of campus to make it to their next classes: British Literature for Kiba and Literary Theory for Naruto. They left each other's company with the promise to text each other and hang out again when they both had free time between classes.

After his Brit Lit class let out, Kiba walked back to his apartment, which was only a few blocks off campus. It was part of a renovated old mansion that had been split into four apartments. Kiba loved it because of its charm and character. His apartment was a walk-up on the second floor. As he unlocked the door, he heard his dog, Akamaru, pawing at the floor, he always knew when his master was coming up the stairs.

"Hey Akamaru," Kiba said crouching down and hugging the big animal. "How was your day? Ready for your walk? I met someone really cool today, and hopefully we'll be good friends..."

The two went outside and down the stairs. Akamaru minded Kiba so well that he didn't have to use a lead on the dog when he just took him out in the yard. Really, he didn't need a lead at all, but he didn't want to risk getting into trouble due to the town's local laws regarding loose animals. Akamaru was Kiba's best friend and the two had more or less grown up together. Akamaru was also the only being on the planet that Kiba shared all his secrets with.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part II**

Kiba didn't have any classes on Thursdays and Naruto only had one class Thursday afternoon, so it wasn't until Friday that the two boys saw each other again. Kiba had gone to his 8:00 Ancient Civilizations class he had transferred to. After it let out he sent a text message to Naruto to let him know he was on campus and if he wanted to hang out to meet at the Amory lounge again after his comp class let out.

A little while later a text from Naruto arrived.

**Sure thinng, see u there**

Kiba smiled and went back to reading more of the poetry book he had started earlier in the week. Naruto arrived at quarter to eleven, sat down in the chair next to Kiba and sighed.

"Rough morning?" Kiba asked.

"Not really, this comp class seems like it's going to a pain in the ass though. We have to interview someone, but not just like a Q&A interview. The professor says we need to have a conversational interview and then write it up as if it were for a magazine article. I like writing, but I'm used to more structured writing."

"That could be fun though," Kiba said. "It seems like you would be more free to be creative this way, which is probably the object of the lesson...to get you away from structured writing."

"Yeah, it is," Naruto said. "I'll probably just make something up. Or wait; would you want to be my interview subject?"

"Sure, I think it could be a fun project," Kiba said.

"All right, cool!" Naruto said. "Thanks...do you have some time this weekend we could meet up and do the interview part? The final paper isn't due until next Friday, but we have to tape record our interview so the professor can listen to it and grade our written part based on what we learned in the interview."

"Oh, my friend Chouji is coming over this weekend. He attends a different university and is driving over for the weekend. I'm going to be busy entertaining him all weekend. I'm sorry. Can we do it Monday? Will that give you enough time?"

"Oh, no problem, Monday will work. Thanks!"

"All right, meet here Monday and we'll do it," Kiba said.

"Great!" Naruto said grinning then noticed the book Kiba was holding. "Hey, what are you reading?"

"Poetry," Kiba answered. "I know, stereotypical, but it's not all flowers and sunshine. Rimbaud was pretty dark. He had a hard time accepting himself, so I've read, and would often degrade himself publicly. It shows through in his poems, like _The Stolen Heart_. It's almost obscene if you read between the lines."

Kiba flipped through the book to find the page with that particular poem and handed the book to Naruto.

"The imagery is so violent," Naruto said. "I see what you mean..."

"It's not all like that, but that one in particular is dark. I like _The Drunken Boat_ too, it's lighter, kind of nonsensical, but I like it."

"Interesting," Naruto mused. "Did you want to go get lunch again? We should go so I can be back for my 12:30 class. Maybe we should just go to the Commons today?"

"Mmmmmm," Kiba thought a moment. He hated the Student Commons, but decided he could endure it for Naruto. "Ok, let's go."

They walked the short distance mostly in silence. The sky had become overcast throughout the morning and looked to threaten rain at any moment. The Student Commons was located in the lower level of a large, circular building near the center of campus. To enter it, you had to go down a half flight of steps as if you were descending into a cellar. Inside, it was sort of like a giant food court, but without any recognizable chain names like you would find in a mall. There was a pizza counter, a deli counter, a large salad bar, a grille, and a station which served a daily hot entree. These were all on the outside perimeter and in the middle were rows and rows of cheap tables in garish colors. At one end, there was a large opening which led to an arcade, which Kiba referred to as the 'Cosmo-Demonic Casino' of the university.

"Well, what sounds good?" Naruto asked.

"Hmmm, meat?" Kiba said.

"Pizza then?" Naruto replied. "You can get meat on that."

"The pizza here is ok, if you haven't tried you should, some people love it. It's ok, but I think I'm going to get chicken tenders from the grille. Meet you at one of the tables?"

"Sounds good," Naruto said heading off to the pizza counter.

Kiba went in the opposite direction as his friend. He stopped at a cooler and grabbed a chocolate milk and an espresso in a can before putting in his order. He glanced across the room as he waited for his food.

_Naruto is sooooo cute_ he thought as he spied the blonde walking toward a table near the center of the Commons. _He actually wears really nice clothes too, not your average crap out of the dresser._

Naruto had on a black v-neck sweater with nothing underneath and the sweater clung to all the curves of his arm and chest muscles. He was also wearing dark blue jeans.

_"You clothes whore,"_ his inner conscience said. _"You just like the thought of tearing that sweater off him."_

_Truthfully, I'd rather he tore mine off. But I don't see that happening any time soon...I wonder what kind of girls he likes..._

_"Who cares, but you're starting to like him, aren't you?!"_

_Maybe...wouldn't that be the thing to do?_ He grabbed his food from the attendant after paying and started toward the table, then abruptly stopped.

_"He'll never know all of you...you know you can't tell him about...that."_

_Fuck you._

"KIBA!" Naruto nearly screamed, causing Kiba to almost jump out of his skin. "Can you get me a straw please?"

"Oh sure," Kiba replied, grabbing one for Naruto and sitting down at the table.

"Are you ok?" Naruto asked. "You totally spaced out hardcore just now."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kiba lied. "I just suddenly thought of something, but now I can't remember what it was..."

"It's way too early in the semester to be doing that," Naruto laughed. "You know, if you have anything on your mind, you can always talk to me about it, it's cool."

"Thanks," Kiba answered and then changed the subject. "How's your pizza?"

"It's good," Naruto said. "Cheese, pepperoni, ham, sausage, and bacon."

"Dude, you're going to puke in your next class."

"I never puke," Naruto said proudly, causing Kiba to laugh.

"How do you like your roommates? You live in Eddowes Hall, right? You know that's supposed to be haunted, right? The basement floor? That's why it's unoccupied."

"Is that true?" Naruto asked skeptically.

"I don't know...it's just what I heard. It is strange that it's all locked up now though."

"Yeah, kind of. But anyway, yeah, my roommates are really cool. Shino is pretty quiet and studies a lot, and Shikamaru is lazy, but really smart. He hasn't gone to any of his classes yet, and says he could pass just showing up for the exams if they would let him."

"They do sound pretty cool."

"Yeah, you should come over sometime and play video games with us, we usually always play in the evenings. You play, don't you?"

"Yeah, I like video games. I kind of play WoW still, but I think they've pretty much ruined it now by making it so easy. I remember when I first started playing, I would die all the time. Now you can just buy your way to the top level. Mostly I like RPGs and can't play sports or fighting games to save my life. My favorite ones are Persona 3 and 4."

"Cool, I love those games too...it's like being in an anime."

"Yeah, and the music is awesome!"

"You should definitely come hang out with us soon one night. I know they would like you."

"OK, next week."

"Great!" Naruto said, grinning happily. "Well, I guess I better start heading to class. See you later."

OK, later, Naruto," Kiba said as he popped open his can of espresso.

_I don't know what I'm doing_ he thought. _Naruto is really nice but I don't know how to act around him when I want to kiss him all the time._

_"Chouji is going to be here soon, go to class!"_ the inner conscience piped up.

_Kiba is really cool_ Naruto thought as he trudged across campus. _We have a lot of things in common too. I hope I don't do anything to fuck up our friendship like I did with Sasuke back home. I was so stupid to tell him...but at least he was cool enough to stay friends._

Kiba left his British Literature class in a daze of Chaucer and Marlowe. He really loved Christopher Marlowe's plays and had read all of them before even taking the class, but Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_ hadn't appealed to him as much. He hurried back to his apartment hoping to get in a good walk with Akamaru before Chouji arrived and/or it started pouring rain.

Chouji was attending another university that was an hour and a half away. He was studying Early Modern Literature, so he often would email Kiba various transcripts of Elizabethan broadside ballads or accounts from the Old Bailey proceedings which documented all manner of peculiar and scandalous crimes or other such fantastical things like anatomical deformities of newborns being attributed to the devil's work.

Kiba remained dry all the way home and stopped at the bottom of the stairs which led up to his second-floor apartment.

"Akamaru" he whispered, then smiled as he heard a bark from his dog inside the apartment.

He ran up the stairs and threw down his messenger bag, grabbed Akamaru's lead, and then the two were off for a trip around the neighborhood. Kiba sent a text to Chouji:

**Let me know whn ur here...i;m out with Akamaru walking**

A moment later, the reply from Chouji came:

**You and your hound!**

Kiba chuckled and wondered why Chouji always seemed to act jealous of Akamaru.

"Chouji, I'm not doing that anymore. I told you that." Kiba said, annoyed by his friend's insistent behavior.

Chouji was trolling around in a chat room talking to guys. In between chats, he would run around making all kinds of shots, getting Kiba drunk. By now, Chouji had given him over ten shots to drink. The last time Kiba had visited Chouji, the same thing happened, but Chouji and Kiba did invite another guy over and somehow he and Kiba ended up having sex while Chouji watched. Chouji was apparently hoping to repeat the scene tonight.

Kiba handed minded of course, and it had helped that he was unbelievably drunk. Tonight though, he had other things on his mind.

"I certainly don't want any freak coming over here and seeing where I live," Kiba said. "That would be too much."

"Well you're just determined to ruin my entire weekend, aren't you?" Chouji said. He was probably only half joking.

"I wonder what Naruto is doing," Kiba said. "We could ask him to come over and hang out."

"I don't know any Naruto!" the half trashed Chouji shouted. "And I certainly don't want to meet any tonight! He's all you've been talking about since I arrived. You said he's not even queer, so why are you so obsessed with him?"

"He's soooo hot though!" Kiba said.

"You're not nearly crunk enough," Chouji said. "I'm going to mix some more shots. When you're crunk you'll forget about Naruto."

_"That's right,"_ Kiba's conscience said. _"You can forget all kinds of things when you're drunk. Even how much you hate people touching you...and you can forget enough that you'll even have sex..."_

_Shut the fuck up!_ Kiba yelled inside his head. Then aloud he said "Chouji, make lots of shots. At least if I'm unconscious I won't have to listen to you badgering me."

It was around 2:30 in the morning before Kiba stumbled to his room and undressed, falling onto his bed in just his boxers. Fortunately he had held out until Chouji passed out and was unable to continue his plan of inviting some random guy over.

Kiba rolled over onto his back, and pressed his hands up to cover his face a moment. Then he yelled: "Akamaru!"

The big dog stood up from where he had been laying on the floor on the opposite of the bed.

"Oh," Kiba said. "You're already here."

He patted the mattress.

"Come on, boy. Time for bed."

Akamaru jumped up and lay down next to his master. Kiba wrapped his arms around him and snuggled up to him. Then he reached for his phone, clicked over to the text screen, and sent a text to Naruto

**still up?**

He tossed the phone down next to him on the bed not expecting to get a reply back that late, but a moment later one arrived.

**Barely, whats up?**

**oh nothing...just about to pass out and thugth i'd say goodnght...**

**Cool. Good night :)**

Kiba laughed drunkenly and put the phone down on his nightstand and went back to snuggling Akamaru.

"You think I'm stupid, 'Maru?" he asked the dog. All he got in return was a lick across his face before he fell asleep.

Naruto set his phone back on the desk next to his bed and smiled.

"Hope you sleep well, Kiba," he whispered.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part III**

The following Monday arrived without much ado. It was still rainy and overcast. Naruto had woken up before his alarm clock went off, so he had turned it off and gotten up. Shino and Shikamaru were still sleeping. Neither of them had classes until Monday afternoon. (Well, Shino had classes Monday afternoon at least...Naruto wasn't too sure when Shikamaru's classes were supposed to be since he still had not attended any.)

He grabbed his toothbrush, toothpaste, and shampoo and headed down the hall to the showers, deciding he would take advantage of the early time to stop at the dorm dining room and get a quick breakfast. After his quick shower, he came back to the room to change and saw Shikamaru was awake but still lying in bed with both his arms folded behind his bed and staring at the ceiling.

"Hey, Shikamaru," Naruto said. "Want to go down to the dining room and get some food with me?"

"Nah, I'll pass," he replied, still staring intently. "I wish I could get my nutrients from the air...eating is so troublesome."

"Uh huh..." Naruto said in a humoring kind of way and continued getting dressed before taking off. He grabbed his book bag, phone, and keys and headed downstairs.

The dorm that Naruto and his roommates lived in was L-shaped, but had a hallway leading out from the corner of the L to a large open dining room. It was here where the dorm residents received three meals a day. Naruto grabbed a plate and tray after swiping his student ID card to get in. He loaded up some scrambled eggs and bacon onto his plate, stopped to drop some bread in the toaster before grabbing some orange juice, picked up the toast, and sat down at an empty table near a window.

He was excited about having the interview for his comp class assignment with Kiba that day. It was going to be fun, and he was looking forward to seeing his new friend again after the weekend and he was also thinking of devious ways to use the interview to find out more about Kiba. He had finished eating quickly and was drinking his juice when he suddenly remembered:

_Shit! I forgot about my assignment for lit theory...damn it! I guess that's what I get for spending all weekend playing video games. I'm going to have to do it after comp. I guess I'll have to reschedule my interview to tomorrow._

Grouchy now from causing himself to have to change his plans, Naruto walked out of the dorm and across campus to Browne Hall, scowling most of the way. Then he saw Kiba waiting outside his classroom.

"Hey, Kiba, what are you doing up here?" he asked, smiling.

"My ancient civ class is over in Finch Hall, so passing through here is kind of on the way to Amory. I thought I'd stop and say 'hey,'" Kiba replied.

"Cool," Naruto said.

"Are you ready for this big interview? Think you can crack me open and find out all about me?"

"Actually, I forgot an assignment that's due for my next class...do you have any time tomorrow?"

"Hmm," Kiba mused thoughtfully. "Tuesday sucks for me. I go pretty much non-stop from 8:30 to 3:30...Western Art Survey and Gothic Literature."

"Damn," Naruto said. "Well that's what I get for slacking..."

"Ummm," Kiba interrupted him. "I'm making chicken fried rice for dinner tonight, and it usually is enough to feed around ten people. Do you want to come over to eat, then we could do the interview after?"

"Oh, that would be cool," Naruto said. "But I feel bad, I screwed up the plan and now you're going to feed me too?"

Kiba laughed.

"That was really your plan all along, wasn't it?"

Now Naruto laughed, running his fingers through his blonde hair.

"Well, let's meet at the library today then, and you can work on your assignment and I'll read or something," Kiba said. "I've got some assigned reading for Brit lit I could do."

"Ok, text me your location, I'll be there after class."

"I can tell you now...top floor, way in the back, there's a little group of tables with these really old lamps with green glass shades...nice and out-of-the-way there."

"You know all those places on campus, don't you?" Naruto said.

**xXxXx**

Kiba's British Literature class ended at 2:00, so he had some time to kill before Naruto's last class, 20th Century American Writers, was done at 3:00. He waited in the Amory lounge, since it was convenient for Naruto to find and it was on the side of campus that led to Kiba's apartment.

Kiba amused himself remembering how at the library earlier, his pen had been knocked off the table and when he had bent down to pick it up, he had a perfect view of Naruto's package. _He must be pretty hung_ Kiba thought, not wanting to sit back up in his chair. As he did, he wasn't paying attention (to himself anyway) and smashed the back of his head into the tabletop.

A while later, Naruto had suddenly exclaimed he had forgotten to tell Kiba about something...

"There's this girl in my Geology class. She's an exchange student from France, and she seems really cool. Her name is Sabina. I was talking to her a little bit during class. A long time ago, her family owned a huge rubber plantation in colonial French Indochina."

"_Indochine_," Kiba said. That's kind of cool."

"Yeah, she's really pretty too...really long dark hair and blue eyes."

_Huh_ Kiba thought _So that's the kind of girl he likes: dark and foreign._

_"Guess that proves he's straight, like I told you," Kiba's inner conscious said._

_Yeah, thanks for pointing that out. This really sucks._

**xXxXx**

Naruto arrived a little after 3:00 and handed Kiba a cappuccino in a can.

"Here, I got this out of the vending machine downstairs," Naruto said, blushing slightly. "I noticed you had an espresso at lunch last week, but there weren't any of those in the machine. Hopefully you like these too."

"I like these better!" Kiba said excitedly. "Sweet! Thanks, Naruto."

"Yeah," Naruto replied. "I wanted to get you something since you're helping me with my assignment and feeding me..."

"Gah, it's fine," Kiba said. "Let's get going though...I'm starving since we skipped lunch."

They headed out, walking along the quiet streets to Kiba's apartment.

"You'll get to meet my dog, Akamaru," Kiba remarked.

"I didn't know you had a dog," Naruto said. "I like dogs a lot, although I don't have one myself."

"Yeah, I'll have to take him for a quick walk when we get back. He's probably pissed because usually I'd have been home a long time ago."

Kiba unlocked the door to the apartment and Akamaru bound through the doorway. Stopped to check out Naruto, then went part way down the stairs before turning back to look at his master.

"Go on, you're ok," Kiba said.

"Wow, your apartment is really nice," Naruto said as they walked inside. He went over and to the couch and lay down on it, looking up at the picture hung on the wall behind it. "I like this picture...it's so atmospheric."

"Thanks, it's _Train in the Snow_ by Monet."

Kiba's apartment was laid out in a centralized pattern. The living room was just inside the front door with a small dining room to the right as you came in, with the small galley kitchen next to it. Beyond the living room was a small sun room, filled with plants, and down a short hallway was the bedroom and bathroom.

The apartment had all wood floors in the living room, dining room, kitchen, sun room, hallway and bathroom. The bedroom was carpeted in a plush, cream carpet. The furniture in the living room was a light blue and the room had a large fire place on one wall. The dining room featured a long mahogany table covered in a white cloth with five chair around it upholstered in red velvet. At the end of the table which was against the wall, a bronze lamp with pink glass shades sat, its shape resembling two water lilies, with the lilies being the glass shades. The bedroom had a large bed with a blue silk comforter spread over it. The bed was made from dark wood and had a large, carved headboard. There were matching nightstands on either side and a large chest of drawer set in a recess in the wall. On the walls were several Chinese ink drawings and there were celadon vases on the nightstands and dresser.

After Kiba had made the fried rice and the two had finished eating, they went into the living room. Kiba sat in a lone chair next to the fireplace and Naruto sat across from him on the couch.

"Well, I guess we better get started," he said as he pulled a small tape recorder from his bag. He pushed the record button and started to speak again. "I'm interviewing my friend, Kiba, whom I met only last week, on the first day of the semester. I'm at Kiba's apartment, and he just made me chicken fried rice for dinner, which was delicious by the way. I think I'm ruined from eating fried rice at any restaurants now. Thank you, Kiba for giving me dinner and for agreeing to be my interview subject."

"No problem...you helped me out the day we met, so I can do the same for you," Kiba answered.

"Have you been to see any movies lately?" Naruto asked. "I haven't myself, but that's only because there haven't been any good action movies lately, or zombie movies..."

"Oh no," Kiba interrupted. "Zombie movies aren't really movies...those are just lame!"

"What?! You're telling me you don't like them?"

"Nope...need a little more mental stimulation."

The interview went along really well with the two friends laughing, joking, teasing, and talking about all kind of different things. Then Naruto, during a fit of laughter as the two talked about awkward moments they had experienced in high school, blurted out:

"Tell me about your first sexual experience..."

Kiba froze and looked away. "We're done," he said and started to get up from the chair he was sitting in.

"No, wait, I'm sorry...I didn't mean that really...I went too far..." Naruto felt terrible at having said something so stupid. Kiba sat back down.

"No, I'm sorry," he said. "I over-reacted. It's cool..."

"Thanks, I didn't mean to be rude..."

They continued on with the interview a while more, but not at lightly as they had been. All the time, Naruto was regretting what he said.

At last he stopped the recorder and got up from the couch.

"Uhhhh, can I use your bathroom?" he asked sheepishly.

"Sure," Kiba said, "It's at the end of the hall...just don't break it!"

Naruto laughed and ran off the relieve himself.

_"Stop thinking about him peeing,"_ the inner conscious said.

_I can think of whatever I want!_

Naruto returned a few minutes later, buckling his belt as he walked back down the hall causing Kiba to shiver slightly.

"Well, I guess I better get going," Naruto said. "Thanks again for helping me, and let me know if you ever need anything, I owe you now for dinner and the interview!"

"No problem dude," Kiba said. "Let me get Akamaru's lead, we'll walk with you back to campus."

As they walked along the now dark and deserted streets, Akamaru managed to keep inserting himself between the two boys. No matter how Kiba would try to go, he always ended up between them.

They arrived at the edge of campus, Naruto stopped and looked over at Kiba who had pulled Akamaru over into a patch of grass.

"Hey," he said. "I'm sorry again for that stupid thing I said earlier..."

"What?" Kiba said.

"You know..."

"What, what?" Kiba repeated. "I don't know what you're talking about..."

Naruto laughed, making Kiba smile.

"Well, text me when you get back to your dorm so I know you made it back."

"Yeah, I will," Naruto promised. "I probably won't see you tomorrow, so let's grab lunch together on Wednesday."

"Sounds good."

As he walked back across the nearly desolate campus, Naruto thought to himself _You need to be more careful. You almost fucked this up and lost someone who is really cool. But I don't know what he thinks of me...he seems like he doesn't really think of me besides as a friend... Life sucks sometimes..._

Across town, Kiba had jumped into bed with Akamaru as soon as he had returned and planned to do some reading before bed. He put his book down on his chest.

"I can't believe I almost flipped out like that," he said to Akamaru as he ran his hand over the dog's thick fur. "And by the way, I never knew you to be a jealous dog. Why'd you keep getting between me and Naruto!?"

Both boys ended up falling asleep thinking the same thing: how they couldn't wait for Wednesday to arrive.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part IV**

Wednesday saw a break in the clouds but slightly cooler temperatures to the sleepy little town where the Cosmo-Demonic Coal-Burning University was located. Kiba had worn a light jacket to campus over the blue-and-white striped, button-up shirt he put on. He had the sleeves rolled up past his elbows and was wearing a white v-neck tshirt underneath and he had on a pair of khaki cargo pants.

Sitting in his Ancient Civilizations class felt somewhat akin to torture that morning; it being the only thing between himself and seeing Naruto again. He wondered if Naruto would feel the same way sitting in his comp class later. The professor was droning on and on about how he had assisted at an archeology dig in France during the summer of the previous year to unearth an ancient Roman sailing ship from the bottom of a river. Kiba normally would be interested in such a story, but today he was so antsy he could barely sit still.

_"Maybe he's lying and just went over there to get some French boys, the old pederast,"_ Kiba's conscious mused.

_He's not like that!_ Kiba replied in his mind. _He seems like a nice man, and besides, he looks like he's at least eighty...I doubt he interested in boys or girls at this point._

Kiba began amusing himself by flipping through his phone and reading some old text messages...namely Naruto's. There weren't that many, so he wasn't occupied very long. He then sent a text to his friend Sakura, whom he had known since elementary school.

**Oi, what's up? I'm bored in my class...**

**Hi, Kiba-boy, I'm still in my dorm, no class until later this morning. sorry you're bored :(**

**It's cool...not your fault :P Hey, when are you going to come visit me? Miss u even though it's only second week of the semester, lulz**

**How about I come on Saturday? Since it's the holiday weekend, it might work out...I can stay overnigt, but probably have to go back home sunday to visit the purrents.**

**Ha! That would be great if you could come...I'll call u later, k?**

**Today is going to bite, call me tomorrow, after 7 pm, will be free then.**

**Ok, no prob...later**

When the class finally let out, Kiba bolted for the door and headed over to Browne Hall hoping he could catch Naruto before he went into his class. He walked out of Finch Hall and a gust of wind hit him, it was really getting cold out.

_Summer's well on it's way out, I guess_ he thought.

He went through the door into the stairwell of Browne Hall and began going up them. He heard the door opening below a moment later.

"Kiba!" Naruto called. "I thought that was you I saw. I ran to catch up with you."

"Hey, Naruto," Kiba said turning around on the stairs. "Yeah, I was going to stop and say 'hi' to you on my want to the Amory Lounge."

"That's cool," Naruto replied as a wide smile spread across his face. "You're pretty thoughtful."

"Ahahaha..." Kiba laughed embarrassedly. "Yeah, that's me..."

Naruto chuckled at him, thinking how cute Kiba looked when he blushed.

_I don't think he likes me that way though_ Naruto thought. _He doesn't give any signals he's interested and I don't want to fuck things up by coming onto him._

"Hey, you don't have class tomorrow at all, right?" Naruto asked as they walked together to Naruto's classroom.

"Nope, my free day!" Kiba said.

"Well, I don't have class until the afternoon, so do you want to come over to the dorm tonight and hang out with me and my roommates? Sounds like it would be a good day to stay up late."

"Yeah, I think you're right," Kiba answered after a moment's thought. "It sounds fun."

"Awesome! Want to wait on campus for me to get out of my American Writers class? Then we can head over, eat at the dorm?"

"Well, I'll have to go home and walk Akamaru, and I'll probably make a quick dinner at my place...dorm food doesn't sound appealing. You should come eat with me and then we can go back to your dorm."

"Ok, that sounds great!"

"You remember where my apartment is?" Kiba asked. "Just come over after your last class."

"Ok, I will." replied the blonde boy. "I'll come meet you at the lounge after this class and we can grab lunch."

"Cool, later," Kiba said as Naruto went into his classroom.

**xXxXx**

Kiba's British Literature class seemed as equally arduous as his Ancient Civilizations class earlier in the day. He was restless and couldn't focus on the lessons, but he was thoroughly familiar with Shakespeare's sonnets already, so he didn't worry about it.

Akamaru was awaiting his return as always. After throwing down his messenger bag, he hooked the lead to Akamaru's collar and took him out for a long walk. Akamaru bounced along next to his master, happy to be out in the open air and content at sensing his master's happy mood.

After returning to the apartment, Kiba decided to take a quick nap since it appeared he would be up late. He set his alarm for 3:45 and snuggled up with Akamaru. He was soon sleeping peacefully.

He was jarred out of his slumber by the alarm and the sound of his phone ringing on the nightstand. It was Naruto. He grabbed the phone and quickly answered it.

"Hey," he said. "Are you out of class now?"

"I'm at your door actually," Naruto said with a laugh. "Are you out with Akamaru?"

"Oh no! I fell asleep...hold on a sec."

He got up and ran out to the front door where Akamaru was sitting, staring at it.

"Dude, why didn't you wake me up if you knew he was here," Kiba scolded the dog, who barked back in response.

Kiba opened the door and saw the blonde boy sitting on the top step. He turned his head, smiling as he did so.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," Kiba apologized. "I fell asleep...I hope you were waiting long."

"No, I just got here a minute ago," he replied. "I thought you were maybe out for a walk, so I was just going to wait, but then I thought I heard Akamaru inside. That' s when I decided to call you. Sorry if I woke you up."

"No, it's ok, my alarm went off at the same time, but I should have known better than to try and nap when you would be coming over soon."

"Don't worry, I didn't wait more than a couple minutes," Naruto said, as he reached out to pat Kiba's shoulder in a friendly gesture. As he did he felt Kiba tense up noticeably so he removed his hand.

Kiba then went into the kitchen, asking Naruto if he would like something to drink. After listing what was available in the refrigerator, Kiba put some ice in a glass and poured a can of Pepsi for him. He then proceeded to make shrimp and broccoli stirfry with rice for the two to eat for dinner.

"Kiba, you are an awesome cook," Naruto said tasting the dish that was set before him at the dining table. "This tasted delicious!"

"Thanks," Kiba replied, "Everything I learned about cooking was from my granny. She used to take care of me a lot when I was little and my parents were working all the time. She was amazing to watch. She would get up early every morning and make bread and either a pie, or a cake, or cookies. And everything else she made was unbelievable...she used to have me sit on the counter while she cooked and I guess I absorbed some of that. She never measured anything at all, yet somehow everything just turned out. I'm not nearly as good as that, but I did manage to retain a little of that magic."

"That's a really nice story, Kiba," Naruto said. "She sounds like a really great lady."

"She was," Kiba said sadly. "She's been gone for a few years now."

"I'm sorry," Naruto said. He felt an ache inside him hearing the sadness in his friend's voice.

"Thanks," Kiba said. "It's nice to think and remember all those times we spent together. I think I was lucky to be able to spend so much time with her."

"Yeah, I was raised by my grandparents," Naruto said. "My parents died when I was very young."

"Really?" Kiba said. "I had no idea...I'm sorry."

"I'm ok with it," Naruto admitted. "When I was younger, I was kind of messed up over it, but I've made peace with myself now."

Kiba felt for his friend's loss, he knew it must be hard for Naruto to talk about, and he longed for some way to make him feel better. His personality though kept him from acting though. He really wanted to hug Naruto at that moment.

"Hey, let's not be sad asses," Kiba finally said. "It seems like we were both lucky and have awesome grandparents. And we're going to have fun tonight! No pity party!"

"That's right," Naruto admitted. "Let me help you clean up and then we can go back over to campus."

After taking a quick walk with Akamaru, the two boys left.

**xXxXx**

Room 3011 was located on the top floor on Eddowes Hall. The building was one of four of the largest residence halls on campus. The four dorm buildings had been built so that the formed a large square, with breezeways between the buildings completing the square's shape.

Naruto and Kiba had entered the building after Naruto had swiped his student ID card at the front door in order to gain access. The buildings were open from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm each day, but outside of those hours, entrance was restricted to anyone who was not a resident or accompanied by a resident.

They walked along the hall after taking the elevator to the top floor.

"We're lucky, we have a corner room so have windows on two walls," Naruto explained as they walked down the corridor toward the end. Naruto's room was the last one on the right side of the hallway. He opened the door with his key and walked in.

"That you, Uzumaki?" Shino called. "Where've you been? We ate without you."

"I had shrimp and broccoli that my friend, Kiba made for us," Naruto said triumphantly. It really was true that the food at the dorm was terrible, and he knew the others would be jealous, so he was going to make the most of the situation.

"What? You suck, Uzumaki," Shikamaru said from this bed, rolling over to the edge to better see the boys, then noticing Kiba, he jumped down from the top bunk. "Hey, I'm Nara Shikamaru. Nice to meet you."

"Hi," Kiba answered. "Inuzuka Kiba, how do you do?"

"We're all going to hang out tonight, hope no one has any homework!" Naruto said.

"I don't do homework, so I'm in," Shikamaru said.

"I'm Aburame Shino," Shino. "What's your major? I'm in Entomology, I'll be out of here after next fall's semester."

"How do you do?" Kiba said to Shino also. "That's a cool major. I'm a second year, so I haven't formalized by major, but it will be something with literature and history.

"Cool cool," Shino answered. "Yeah, insects fascinate me, so that's what I'm going to do with my life."

"I used to have a cricket I kept in a big, glass vase," Kiba said. "I put moss in for him and fed him fruit. He would chirp and chirp all night."

"What did he look like?" Shino asked.

"Oh, just a common black field cricket. I called him 'Aroundright'"

"_Gryllidae Gryllinae_," Shino said. "Why did you call him that?"

"Well, it's a little silly," Kiba began. "In this video game, there's a sword you can get out of one of the dungeons, I didn't really pay close attention and thought the sword name was 'Aroundright,' but upon looking closer once I found one, it was really 'Arondight,' the brother sword of Excalibur. So, I had a cricket with a janky name."

"Ha!," Shino laughed. "That's an awesome story."

"I like bumblebees too," Kiba said.

"_Apinae Bombus_," Shino said. "I took three semesters of Latin since I have to know all these scientific names."

"Let's play a game," Naruto said. "I don't really have any video games we can all play together, so let's think of something we can all participate in."

"Monopoly?" Shikamaru suggested. "That requires a certain amount of strategy and skill."

"Have you guys ever played Consensus Census?" Shino asked. "It's pretty fun."

"What is it?" Naruto inquired. "I've never heard of it."

The other two boys had not played it either, so Shino sat down to explain it to them. At the same time, he took several sheets of paper from his printer and his scissors out of his desk drawer.

"What you do," he began, "is to have everyone first write down ten questions, whatever you want, and then you shuffle them all together and make a stack in the middle of the players, that's the 'census' part of the game. Then you pair up with a partner and each team takes turns drawing a card and asks the team to their right the question on the card. One of the team members has to answer the question, and then the entire group of everyone comes up with a score for that answer from zero to ten points, in whole numbers only, based on how good the answer is. That's the 'consensus' part of the game. On the next round, whichever partner didn't answer the first question has to answer the next one, so it keeps going alternating between the two partners. You keep playing until you get through all the cards. Also, each individual player has the opportunity to pass twice on a question if that player really doesn't want to answer, but you have five pointed deducted from your score. Whichever team has the highest score at the end wins."

"Hmmm," Naruto thought a moment. "This could be really fun. Are you in Kiba?"

"Yeah, I'll play," Kiba answered.

"How about you Shikamaru?"

"Sounds like a bother to write all those questions, but let's do it."

"Great!" Shino said. "Normally you have a lot more players, so since we only have four of us, let's all write out twenty questions each."

"Oh, man," Shikamaru said. "Can I back out?"

"NO!" both Naruto and Shino yelled at the same time.

"Ok, ok, but I'm going to pick Kiba for my partner, he seems more intelligent than you guys."

"Whatever!" Naruto challenged him. "We'll see who has the better score at the end. Shino and I will kick your ass!"

The four boys sat down on the floor with the two teams facing each other as Shino passed out the slips of paper he had made, and they all began to write down their questions. Despite his protests, Shikamaru finished all of his first and sat awaiting the others to get done.

Finally, everyone had their twenty questions written out and Shino took them, shuffled all of them together randomly and staked them in on the floor between the two teams.

"You can draw first, Kiba, since you're the guest," Shino said.

"Cool," Kiba said, grabbing the top card and looking at it. "Ok, who's going to answer first?"

"I will," Naruto said. "Shoot."

"Ok, what's your favorite mixed drink?"

"Coke and Amaretto," Naruto answered.

"Ugh!" Shino exclaimed. "That must be sickeningly sweet."

"Hey!" Naruto said. "I can't help it if I'm so sweet!"

"So, now we have to score him, right?" Shikamaru asked "I'd say two points."

"It might be ok," Kiba said. "I'd say four points."

"I know your on my team," Shino said, "but I'd only give you one point. So, we have a two, a four, and a one. We need to come to agreement, so I'm willing to meet Shikamaru's two. What do you say, Kiba?"

Kiba thought a moment before answering. "Yeah, two points will work...the more I think about it, the more I think too many of those would make me ill."

"You guys suck," Naruto said. "They're really good."

"Whatever, Naruto, you draw next," Shikamaru said. "I'll answer first for our team."

Naruto picked up the next card on it, and began snickering.

"Oh boy, I don't know who wrote this one, but I'm glad I didn't get it."

Shikamaru groaned.

"Ready?" Naruto asked. "What is the most embarrassing moment you've had?"

Shikamaru groaned again as if in pain, and slumped backwards, laying on his back onto the floor.

"This one time, when I was about four years old, my family was having a Christmas party, and I was supposed to be in bed. I wanted to see what was going on, so I snuck out to watch from the top of the stairs, but for some reason I thought I'd be more quiet if I took off my pyjamas. Well, I ended up leaning over too far, slipped, and fell all the way down the stairs and was left in a naked heap in front of an entire room of strangers."

The three other boys began laughing hysterically at the conclusion of Shikamaru's confession.

"Dude, that's awful!" Naruto managed to say between fits of laughter. "That's definitely ten points.

"Totally worth ten points," Shino said.

"Oh definitely," Kiba said.

"Ok, ok, let's calm down and forget about that now," Shikamaru said. "Your draw, Shino."

"All right, for Kiba now," he said taking the next card. "What's your guilty pleasure?"

"Hmmmm," Kiba thought intently for a few minutes.

"Remember you can pass if you want to," Naruto said.

"I really, really, really like that song, 'I'm a Slave 4 U,' by that Spears girl..."

The four boys sat silently glancing at each other for several seconds that seemed to last and eternity before Shino, Shikamaru, and Naruto all burst out laughing wildly.

"What kind sick pervert do I have on me team?" Shikamaru said. "I think that's another ten point answer."

"Oh if I could give more, I would," Shino admitted.

"Ten points!" Naruto agreed.

After several more minutes of laughter, which Kiba had joined in on realizing how strange and unexpected his answer had been, Shikamaru picked up the next card.

"Oh man," he said. "Naruto, this has got to be one of your questions...Shino, boxers or briefs?"

"How'd you know?" Naruto winced.

"Actually," Shino said nearly without emotion. "I don't wear any...I find them to be too constricting."

"Oh man," Shikamaru groaned, collapsing backwards again as Naruto and Kiba began giggling uncontrollably. "That's something I should have never known about."

"I think that's worth ten points," Naruto said between fits of laughter. He was laughing so hard his face had turned read from lack of normal breathing.

Kiba, who was clutching his sides from his own laughing, said, "That is for sure ten points. I'm in so much pain though, my sides ache..."

"I can't argue with you, ten points," Shikamaru said. "I just don't ever want to think about it again."

The game continued over a several more hours, drawn out by the repeated breaks of hysterical laughter. After the final card was drawn and the question asked and answered, the score favored Naruto and Shino by a slim margin of just three points.

"We should save these to play again sometime," Naruto said, picking up the paper cards.

"Actually, you're supposed to burn them each time so you start over with new questions for each game, otherwise you'll know the questions all the time. That keeps it more random."

"Good idea," Naruto replied as he tossed them into the trash can. "What's next?"

"It's getting late," Shino said. "What are you thinking?"

"Well," Naruto said. "Kiba, do you remember what you told me last week, that our dorm is supposed to be haunted?"

"Yeah, but I don't know if that's just a story or not."

"I think we should go find out."

"What's this story?" Shikamaru asked.

"I've heard that too," Shino said. "A girl was supposed to have been killed in one of the basement rooms a long time ago."

"The entire basement floor is never used anymore for students." Kiba added.

"That's strange," Shikamaru said. "I don't really believe in ghosts, but maybe I've just never met one. Let's check it out."

"If it's locked up, how are we going to get down there though?" Shino asked.

"I've did some preliminary scouting around," Naruto said. "The doors are just held shut by some flimsy chains. We could get through them with some bolt cutters."

"Who's got bolt cutters laying around their dorm room?" asked Shikamaru.

"Well, we'd need to go out and get them," Naruto said. "Shino, are you willing to drive? You've got the only car among us."

"Yeah, let's do it. Take your backpack, Naruto, so we can hide them in there...probably not a good idea to be walking around with them out in the open."

"That's true," Naruto admitted as he dumped his backpack out on his bed.

"I'll go get my car and pull up to the front of the building, come out when I text you," Shino said.

A few minutes later, a text arrived to Naruto's and Shikamaru's phones alerting them that Shino was waiting for them.

The other three boys left the room and took the elevator to the lobby, went out the front door, and piled into Shino's Jeep Cherokee. They drove over to one of the two large department stores that were open 24 hours a day, and headed inside to find the Hardware Department. Naruto located the bolt cutters and grabbed a pair.

"These will do the trick," he said and they all head back to the front of the store to check out.

Naruto started to pull out his wallet and get some cash out when Kiba stopped him.

"I'll get it," he said. "This adventure is sort of my fault since I told you that story, so let me buy them."

"Oh, ok, thanks," Naruto said as Kiba stepped over the self-check-out register and swiped his credit card through the processor.

They all then drove back to the dorm with Naruto shoving the bolt cutters into his backpack. It was after midnight by then so Shino drove back up to the front of the building.

"It's officially Saturday," he said. "Don't have to worry about parking meters."

They had decided it would be best to go back up to their dorm room and wait for the 1:00 walk through of the night shift RA before proceeding with their plan. They would then sneak down the stairwells to the bottom, use the bolt cutters to gain entry to the basement floor, and then see what they could find within.

They sat together in the dorm room with the lights out. Shino and Shikamaru sitting at their desks and Kiba and Naruto sitting on the edge of Naruto's bed. They waited in silence until the RA came through around 1:20, his flashlight shining around the corridor due to the hall lights being dimmed at nighttime. They waited a good ten minutes longer to be sure he had gone down to the next floor before stealthily exiting the room and making their way as silently as possible to the stairwell. They opened the door and slowly inched in through just enough space due to the creaking noises the door was making. They then silently descended the stairs all the way to the bottom, where they were greeted by the double doors held shut by a chain, as Naruto had described.

Each of the boys had to take turns at the bolt cutters before finally getting through the link on the chain, which was rather thick. Once cut, Naruto carefully slid the chain out from one of the handles and put the end down on the tiled floor.

"Everyone ready?" he whispered as he pulled the door open.

A musty, dank smell greeted them as they each in turn stepped into the forbidden corridor.

"This is nasty," commented Kiba.

Naruto closed the door, making sure to use the chain to prevent it from closing completely. They took a few tentative steps forward as Shino took out his phone and turned the light on. The corridor ahead was quite decrepit looking. Ceiling tiles and apparently become wet through the years and had fallen onto the ground, the paint on the walls was peeling, and the carpet was pulling up from the floor and rotting in spots.

Naruto tried the door handle of the first room they came to. It was locked. Shikamaru tried the opposite on and found it to also be locked.

"The room number plates are all gone." Shino said waving his light around. "Come on Shikamaru, let's go down a little ways. Naruto and Kiba wait here for a few minutes just to make sure no one comes."

They two boys went forth slowly until they were about half way down the hall. Then Shino motioned for the other two to follow them. They kept moving forward, trying each door handle and continuing to find them all locked.

"This is creepy," Kiba said. He felt Naruto's shoulder against his in the darkness and he felt reassured.

They finally caught up with Shino and Shikamaru about three quarters of the way down the hall. Shino grabbed the door handle and tried it, but it was also locked. Then they heard something within the room, like papers shuffling. They all instantly froze.

"What's that smell?" Shino asked. "I didn't smell anything a minute ago."

"It smells like perfume," Naruto said.

The four of them started to feel the hair stand on the back of their necks.

"It's White Shoulders," Kiba said. "My grandmother used to where it...it's a very old perfume, it first came out in the 1920s I think."

"What the fuck," Shikamaru muttered.

Suddenly the door in front of them moved slightly, as if someone on the other side had gently pushed it causing it to hit against the jamb slightly.

"Oh shit," Naruto whispered. "We need to get the fuck out of here, now."

Kiba grasped Naruto's sleeve tightly as the blonde quickly began heading back to the doorway, practically dragging Kiba along with him and Shino and Shikamaru immediately behind them.

The four nearly burst through the door, not caring about the noise now and ran up the four flights of stairs to the top, wrenching open the last fire door.

"Who's go keys," Naruto whispered ferociously.

"I do," answered Shikamaru, ramming the key into the lock and pulling open the door.

They slammed the door shut and collapsed around the room, terrified and out of breath.

"I don't know what the fuck just happened," Shino said, "but I am NEVER going down there again."

It was almost 3:00 now, and Kiba mentioned how he needed to go home still.

"I'll drive you dude, don't worry, you are not walking home alone," Shino said.

"I don't want to be a pain," Kiba started to protest, but Naruto cut him off.

"Kiba, I don't want you walking home alone this late, just go with Shino, I won't worry if he's with you."

"Ok."

After Shino and Kiba had left, Naruto collapsed onto his bed. Shikamaru, who had crawled up to his bunk on the top, put his head over the edge to look down at Naruto.

"Hey, is Kiba your boyfriend?" he asked.

WHAT?! NO! Why would you ask that!? No," Naruto had become totally flustered and caught off guard.

"Sorry, sorry," Shikamaru said as a pained look crossed his face. "I thought you were 'out' is all..."

WHAT?! Shikamaru!?" Naruto became flustered all over again as another pained look crossed Shikamaru's face.

"Gah, shouldn't have brought it up, sorry, sorry," he said.

"No, wait," Naruto said. "I didn't realize you knew I liked guys, and I didn't say anything because I didn't want to make you or Shino uncomfortable."

"Dude, we don't care," Shikamaru said. "We both think you're cool and we're your friends. Who you like to date doesn't bother us at all."

"SHINO KNOWS TOO?!" Naruto felt like he was losing his mind. "Why didn't you guys say anything?"

"It's not an issue for us, why would we bring it up? Especially since you never did. We just accepted who you are, and that's all there is to it."

"You guys are awesome, I'm really glad to have you for roomies. But why did you think Kiba was my boyfriend?"

"Dude, because of how you both were looking at each other all night long..."


	5. Chapter 5

**Part V**

Kiba didn't wake the next day until 11:30, incredibly late for him. He threw on a hoodie and some jeans and took Akamaru out for a long walk. It was still sunny out, but also still colder than usual. As they walked along the sidewalk, randomly taking different blocks, Kiba checked through his texts. He typed one to Naruto:

**Hey, u up yet?**

A minute later he received:

**I'm awake but not up yet. So tired from last night. Haha**

**Yeah, i just got up a few mins ago...akamaru wanted to go out.**

**Cool...go back to sleep then when you get done. Its freezing in the dorm today. They don't turn the heat on until nov. Keep warm!**

**You too...i have tons of reading to do, so probably no more sleep for me today. Text me later after your class if u aren't busy**

**Ok i will :)**

Kiba looked through some more texts and remembered he needed to call Sakura that evening. He made a mental note and took his bearings of where he was so he could start heading back home and to his awaiting homework.

**xXxXx**

Back at Eddowes Hall, Naruto finally emerged from his protective layer of blankets. He shivered as he stood up, the tile floor feeling like ice beneath his bare feet. He quickly went over to his dresser and pulled out a fleece hoodie and put it on over his tshirt. He turned around as the door opened. Shikamaru entered. He had come from the showers and was dressed and well scrubbed.

"Are you actually going to class today?" Naruto asked in a teasing tone.

"Yeah, I went on Tuesday too, you just didn't know because you were already gone. Want to go down to eat with me?"

"Sure, I'm so hungry..."

"Are you going to invite me too?" Shino said from his bed on the other side of the room where he had awoken and sat up.

"If you aren't completely naked," Shikamaru commented. "I can see no shirt, but who knows about the rest."

Shino lifted up the covers and peered beneath.

"I have a sock on," he said.

"Meet us downstairs," Shikamaru said, sighing at another visual he wished he didn't have of his friend.

"Hey, you brought it up," Shino called as he practically ran out of the room.

Naruto followed Shikamaru down to the dining room. They swiped their ID cards at the entrance and walked in, picking up trays, plates, and silverware. They then split up to forage for their own lunches.

Shikamaru had found a table by the time Naruto had gotten his soda and food. The blonde sat down next to his roommate and looked at him, then said:

"Ummm, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Shikamaru said.

"Well, you said last night something about how Kiba and I were looking at each other. I'm not sure what you meant."

"Well, from observing the two of you, it seemed like you were both interested in each other, and you both definitely kept looking at each other. It was just natural for me to think you were more than friends."

"I just met him on the first day of class," Naruto said.

"Really?" Shikamaru replied in disbelief. "I never would have guessed you had known each other for such a short time period. You seemed like you were old friends."

"What are we talking about?" Shino said, setting down his own tray of lunch.

"Naruto's love life," Shikamaru said.

"He has one?" Shino said, laughing.

"Well, I thought so, but he tells me otherwise," Shikamaru said. "Last night I thought Kiba was his boyfriend, but he just told me they only met last week."

"That really true?" Shino asked Naruto.

"Yeah, I never saw him before in my life."

"Well, there must be more, are you interested in him? You must be somewhat at least, because I also thought you guys were dating."

"I don't think he thinks of me that way," Naruto said. "We hang out a lot between classes and I've been over to his apartment a couple times, but he never does anything to make me think he wants to be more than friends. It's kind of frustrating, because I think he's really cool, and we have a lot in common. I don't know though."

"Well, we may not be the best people to offer advice to you. We're both straight and neither of us have girlfriends at the moment, but why don't you try to tell him how you feel. Maybe that would move things along."

"I don't know...the last time I told someone something like that it was a disaster. Although I was really stupid about it, he was straight and I knew that, but I told him I was in love with him anyway. Now things are a little different between us."

"Just try it next time," Shino said. "Ask him if he wants to do something over the holiday weekend."

"I guess I could," Naruto said. "I'll send him a text."

**Hey, are you doing anything special over the long weekend? If not, want to hang or something? maybe cathc a movie?**

It was a couple minutes before the reply came:

**That sounds fun...my friend Sakura is coming over saturday tho, but she leaves early sunday...are u free sun/mon?**

**Yeah, that's good for me.**

**OK, i'll text you sun morning and see whats up. **

"That wasn't so hard," Shino said afterwards. "By the way, he must be super rich, what does his parents do?"

"I don't think he's rich, why do you?" the blonde asked.

"Naruto, he paid for the bolt cutters last night with a black card," Shino said.

"I noticed that too," Shikamaru added.

"What's that?" inquired Naruto.

"It's really exclusive and there's no spending limit on it," Shino said.

"Oh," Naruto said. "He's never mentioned his parents to me now that I think about it..."

The three roommates finished their lunches and then split up to head back to the room or to their classes.

**xXxXx**

Saturday morning, Kiba slowly awakened, emerging from the realm of dreams. He didn't want to get up, enjoying the warmth of his bed and snuggled against Akamaru, who pushed his cold, wet nose against his master's cheek.

"Hey," Kiba said. "That's cold!"

He snuggled back under the covers, enjoying the feeling of being half way between sleep and waking. He turned over onto his other side so his back was to Akamaru, grabbed one of his pillows and clutched it to his chest, burying his face against the soft pillowcase.

He loved this feeling he now had, as if he were still partially inside the dreamworld he always encountered while he slept. One of his hands slipped beneath the waistband of his cotton pyjamas. He sighed luxuriantly at the feeling from his own touch, pressing himself against the palm of his hand.

"Naruto..." he whispered, before suddenly being jarred awake by his telephone.

"Hey, you!" Sakura said. "I'm about a half hour from you...what do you have planned for us?"

"Oh, shit!" Kiba exclaimed. "Sakura, I just woke up. Let me jump in the shower real quick after I walk Akamaru...sorry."

"Young slacker!" Sakura laughed before hanging up on her friend.

Kiba jumped up out of the bed, pulled off his pyjamas, grabbed a pair of Adidas track pants from his closet, and put them on over his boxers. He then pulled a polo shirt from the closet and pulled it over his head.

"Come on, boy!" he called to Akamaru as he stepped into his sneakers.

After a short, brisk walk, the two returned to the apartment with Kiba frantically flinging off his clothes as he ran down the hall to the bathroom for a shower.

After quickly shampooing his hair and washing himself, he shut the water off only to hear a banging knock at the front door.

"Fuck!" he said out loud as he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist. He ran back, unlocked the door, and yanked it open.

"I am so sorry, Sakura!" he called, heading back to the bathroom. "I was just in the shower, I really am a slacker today! I'm nekkid!"

Sakura giggled and brought her small overnight bag into the living room and dropped it onto the couch.

"I'll just be resting here," she called to him. "Take your time."

Akamaru jumped up on the couch and barked at her in greeting. She ran her hands through his thick her, scratching behind his ears.

Kiba re-emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later after toweling himself dry and running a little gel through his hair in an attempt to control its shaggy appearance, which it didn't at all really help. He ditched his towel in his room and picked out a long-sleeved white tshirt, which he then put a light blue polo shirt over top of, then pulled on a pair of very worn-in jeans over his boxers. He grabbed a pair of socks and went out to the living room. He sat down in the chair by the fireplace to put on his socks.

"Well, here I am," he said, grinning. "How do your classes seem to be this semester?"

"Ugghhhh," Sakura groaned, slumping against the back of the couch, "this semester may be more than I bargained for...why'd I want to be a nurse again? All this biology, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology..."

"Wow, that sounds rough...I'd never get through all that."

"Well, I don't have all those classes right this semester, but eventually I'll take all of them. What about you? How's your semester going?"

"It's good so far! I like all my classes now. I dropped algebra again to take a history class, so I'm doing great!"

"Ha! You're going to have to take it eventually, silly. You better just get it over with."

"I knoooooooooww," Kiba groaned. "I probably will next semester."

The two talked for a while longer before deciding to go out to get some lunch. Sakura wanted to go to the mall also to look for some clothing and a few other things.

"Should we just grab something at the food court in the mall then?" Kiba asked as they went out of the apartment and down the stairs. There were four reserved spots along the curb, one for each of the four apartments in the old house.

Kiba led Sakura over to his car, which was a white Honda Civic Si. It had a carbon fiber hood, black eight-spoke rims, and a large wing on the back. Inside, the upholstery was black alcantara with contrasting white stitching and the seatbacks were embroidered with the white "Si" logo. The steering wheel was wrapped in white leather. The instrument panel and stereo controls were surrounded by brushed aluminum.

"That's would be ok with me," Sakura said. "But let's go someplace really good for dinner!"

"Yeah, we should go to Chen Lee's again. I love that place, and you haven't been there in forever."

They drove over to the mall, which was about a half hour away, on the other side of town. As they were driving through the parking lot looking for an open spot, Kiba noticed Naruto and Shino coming out of the mall. He drove around the aisle and stopped next to them.

"Yo, Kiba," Shino said, seeing Kiba before Naruto did.

"Hey, Kiba," Naruto said. "Sweet car, I didn't know you had one."

"Thanks, yeah, I never drive to campus because it's so close. This is my friend Sakura. We've known each other since sixth grade."

"Hi guys,"Sakura said.

"This is Naruto and his roommate Shino. I know them from school."

"We were out here looking for clothes...Shino has a date tonight!" Naruto said.

"Cool," Kiba said. "We're just going to wander around. I'll text you in the morning. Have fun on your date, Shino!"

"Thanks, man," Shino said.

"Later," Naruto said as the car pulled away.

**xXxXx**

Chen Lee's Garden was the full name of the restaurant Kiba and Sakura were going to for dinner. It was a little tiny place tucked away in one end of a strip mall. There were only about ten booths in the entire restaurant. It was run by a very short Oriental lady named Ming Lee (Chen was her husband). She wore a large number of jade bangles on both her arms which rattled when she moved. She had come to remember Kiba from his frequent visits to the place. It was the only Chinese restaurant in town that Kiba would go to. It was also the only one that still made their own egg rolls instead of buying them frozen. Kiba loved them and would get one every time he ate there. They were huge, about twice as big as ones sold elsewhere.

"Kiba!" Ming said upon see him coming up to the counter. "You not been in for long time!"

"Yeah, school started again," Kiba said.

"Ahhhh, you better study hard!" she said laughing. "Ready to order?"

"Mongolian chicken with steamed rice, egg roll, and fried wontons," Kiba said.

"You always get that!" Ming admonished him. "All other dinners good too! How about you, Miss?"

"Oh, I think I'll have the vegetable lo mein with an egg roll," Sakura answered.

"Ok, go take a seat, I'll bring to you when it's ready," Ming said after Kiba paid for the food. Ming then turned to the opening in the wall between the kitchen and the dining room and shouted the order back to the cook.

The two friends sat one of the two booths by the front windows as one of the regular waitresses brought them glasses of water, a pot of green tea, and tea cups.

"So," Sakura said. "This Naruto...are you interested in him...dating...what's the story?"

"He's straight," Kiba said looking down at the table and moving his chopsticks around as a distraction. "I think he likes this French exchange student girl he has in one of his classes."

"I'm sorry," she replied. "He's really cute."

"I know, right..."

"I was just thinking maybe he might be someone you were thinking of going out with. It's been a long time since you broke up..."

"I know," Kiba said. "And I got dumped, we didn't break up."

"I don't want you to be lonely, Kiba," she said, grasping his hand. "There's lots of other people out there. Do you talk to anyone else on campus or online?"

"Only occasionally," Kiba admitted. "It's so irritating though. No one is worthy it seems. But anyway, I'm not lonely. I have Akamaru."

"That's not what I meant!" she scolded as Ming brought out Kiba's wontons and Sakura's egg roll.

"Actually, Naruto is coming over to hang out tomorrow sometime," Kiba said. "At least he seems to want to be friends. He moved here from down in the south of the state, as a transfer. He doesn't really know many people yet. He's fun to hang out with, and I like his roommates too. So, see, I actually met three new people just in the past two weeks."

"I just worry is all."

"I know, thanks."

Ming soon arrived back at the table with the two dinners and Kiba's egg roll, which he devoured. The two ate quietly, talking about classes and different friends from high school. After they were finished with their food, they returned to Kiba's apartment and took Akamaru out for a walk. Then Kiba gave him his dinner and then settled down to watch some DVDs with his friend.

The next morning he got up and made breakfast for them, toast and ham & cheese omelets, even making one for Akamaru. After breakfast, Sakura showered and then gathered up her belongings. She still had three more hours to drive before she reached her and Kiba's hometown, which was way up north in the state.

"Thanks for coming," Kiba said as she got into her car. "I know it's a little out of the way, but it's always nice to see you."

"It was worth it," she said. "Thanks for dinner. Loves and kisses!"

"Bye-bye."

She drove away and turned onto the next street, making her way to the highway.

"You ready, Akamaru?" Kiba called to his dog, who was poking around in some bushes in the yard. "I'm in my pyjamas and barefoot...probably not a very respectable sight."

Akamaru looked up and bound over to his master, barking comically, as if he were answering Kiba. They two headed back up to the apartment.

**xXxXx**

Naruto showed up to Kiba's apartment at around 2:00, as Kiba had asked him too by text. As he came inside the apartment, he was greeted by Akamaru, who had already come to recognize Naruto as one of the few people admissible to Kiba's sanctuary. He no longer even growled lowly when Naruto came up the stairs, which was something he did any other time someone he didn't recognize approached the apartment.

"What sounds good for dinner?" Kiba asked.

"Hmmm, I don't know, do I have any certain choices?" Naruto replied.

"Nope, sky's the limit," Kiba answered. "But whatever we decide, we'll need to go to the market. I'm running low on provisions. What's your favorite thing to eat?"

"That's easy," Naruto said. "Real ramen."

"Ok, we can make ramen. By 'real' you don't mean instant, right?"

"That's right," Naruto said. "You really can make ramen?"

"Well, it's not super authentic, but it's pretty good."

"MMMMMmmmm, I bet it will be delicious!"

"Hope so," Kiba said. "We can eat ramen, then watch movies and get drunk! Sounds like a fun college weekend activity."

"Yeah! Count me in!"

After they returned from the market, Kiba went about getting the ramen broth ready and prepping some vegetables they had decided to put in also. Naruto watched from the dining room. After cooking the broth for a couple hours, he boiled the noodles and readied the bowls. He ladled out broth over the noodles and put some pieces of pork in each bowl, and some of the vegetables.

"I'm almost drooling, it smells so good," Naruto said as Kiba set one of the bowls down in front of him along with a spoon and chopsticks.

"I hope you like it," Kiba said returning with his own bowl.

"This is fucking awesome!" Naruto almost shouted after tasting the ramen.

"Thanks," Kiba said shyly, looking away and focusing on his own bowl.

"Shikamaru and Shino are going to be so jealous when I tell them..."

After they had finished eating, Kiba told Naruto to pick out a DVD for them to watch and directed him out to the sun room where three large bookcases held all of Kiba's movies. Naruto began scanning them and selected an anime film called _5 Centimeters per Second_.

"That's a good one," Kiba said seeing Naruto's choice. He opened up the DVD and took the disc out and put it into the DVD player and turned the tv on. He was about to sit down in the chair when Naruto said:

"You can sit over here," indicating next to where he was sitting on the couch, then added "You'll probably be able to see better."

After only a second's hesitation, Kiba sat down next to the blonde boy on the couch and started the DVD playing. He got up a moment later.

"I forgot! I was going to make us something to drink."

In the kitchen he put ice into two glasses and then poured out measures of gold rum and peachtree. Returning to the living room, he handed one to Naruto and then took his seat on the couch again.

After the third refill of their drinks, the movie was over. Kiba gulped the rest of the contents of his glass and put away the DVD.

"All right," he said. "Let's have a drink."

"That movie was kind of sad," Naruto said. "But you're right, it was really good."

"Yeah, it's sentimental. Come in here, we can have some shots this time, same thing."

He took a cocktail shaker out of one of the cupboards and filled it with some ice, then poured in the rum and peachtree. He put the cover on the shaker and shook it violently for several seconds. After, he took out six shot glasses and poured out six shots.

"KANPAI!" he shouted and started taking the shots. Naruto quickly followed suit and took his three shots.

"These are good, Kiba, what are they?" Naruto asked. "It's almost like drinking juice."

"I don't know if it has a real name or not, I just made it up one night."

"Cool, good job!"

"More?"

They each had three more shots apiece before Naruto stumbled back out to the living room and lay down on the floor. He took the tv remote and began flipping through the channels.

"What's on your tv?" he asked Kiba, who had come in and sit down next to him on the floor. They were both well on their way to being completely drunken.

"Probably junk," Kiba answered as Naruto kept flipping through channels.

Kiba layed down on the floor too now, becoming very intoxicated from the alcohol. As he lay down, his shoulder was touching Naruto's and the blonde looked over at him.

"I like your tattoos," he said, poking his finger to Kiba's cheek where the red tattoo was.

Kiba laughed, putting his head down.

"Thanks...you have any?"

Naruto rolled over on his back and pulled up his shirt revealing his tattoo that surrounded his navel. Kiba stared at it, and at Naruto's taut, muscled stomach. Without thinking he lifted up one of his hands, then stopped suddenly.

"It's ok, you can," Naruto said.

Kiba's hand continued to Naruto's body, tracing the swirling design with his finger. Naruto's skin was so warm, and he looked unbelievably beautiful lying back with his shirt pulled up. Kiba stopped and pulled his hand back, looking away.

Naruto rolled back over onto his stomach, their shoulders touching again.

"There isn't shit on..." he said tossing the tv remote aside. "Gaahhh, I'm so drunk..."

"Me too," Kiba said. "So drunken..."

"Thanks for making me ramen, Kiba," Naruto said softly. "That was really nice of you considering I just met you ten days ago or something. You're already one of my best friends."

"Yeah...you're my best friend, 'cept for 'Maru," Kiba said sleepily, his eyes half closed from the alcohol slowing down his system. "When I met you, it was like I had always known you...usually takes months and months for me to open up to someone."

"Really?" Naruto asked, finding himself becoming more tired by the minute also.

"FUCK!" Kiba suddenly yelled, startling Naruto.

"What's wrong?"

"I have to walk Ak'maru..." Kiba said. "Fucking long way down to the yard..."

"Ohhhh, dude that sucks," Naruto said. "It's like ten miles away...want me to go with you?"

"WAIT!" Kiba suddenly screamed again, making Naruto laugh this time.

"Why for are you screaming?" he asked.

"Was I?" Kiba asked. "Anway, my dog's so smart, he'll go down by himself and come back...we don't have to go with him!"

"That's so fucking awesome...I love Akamaru," Naruto said.

Kiba crawled over to the door and unlocked it, pulled it open, and called for Akamaru, who happily dashed out and down the steps.

"Just have to leave it open so he can come back in," Kiba told Naruto.

A few minutes later, Akamaru did indeed return, pushing the door open with his nose. Kiba grabbed him and hugged him.

"You're so smart, boy...you're so smart!" Then he turned to Naruto and said "You have to stay tonight...you can't walk alone outside and I'm to drunk to drive you home, that ok?"

"Yeah, I'll just sleep here on the floor."

"No! The couch is comfy...I'll get you some blankets. You should text Shikamaru and Shino so they don't worry."

Naruto grabbed his phone and sent a group text to his roommates:

**hey guys, drank too much so staying here at kiba's apt, be back tomorrow**

A few minutes passed and Shino replied to the group message:

**Uzumaki's gettin laid tonight!**

Then almost immediately after that one, Shikamaru sent:

**I don't want to know about all that, Shino! Go to sleep. Goodnight, Naruto.**

Naruto sent one more back to them both:

**Good night guys**

Kiba returned with a couple blankets and began transforming the couch into a bed for his friend. He tucked on blanket in around the cushions and then spread the second one over it.

"Ummm," Naruto said running his hands through his hair. "Do you maybe have a pair of shorts I could borrow to sleep in? My jeans probably won't be very comfortable."

Kiba returned to his room and brought back a pair of gold Nike gym shorts and handed them to Naruto.

"Thanks!"

"Oh, I forgot to bring you a pillow, hold on a sec."

Kiba went back to his room once more, grabbed one of the pillows off his bed, and turned to go back out. In the hallway, there was a mirror hung on the opposite side of the hall and in it he could see Naruto's reflection. Kiba took a step forward to better see as Naruto unzipped his jeans and let them fall to his feet. Kiba bit his bottom lip as he watched the blonde step into the shorts he had given him and pull them up toward his waist, leaving them down so that a couple inches of his boxers showed.

Kiba suddenly snapped back to reality and walked out, his face slightly flushed from what he had seen. Naruto took the pillow from him and lay down on top of the blankets.

"There, perfect," he said as Kiba began turning out the lights. "Good night, Kiba."

"Good night, Naruto," Kiba said. "Come on, Akamaru."

Naruto hadn't known how long he had been asleep when he suddenly woke up to what sounded like Kiba crying. He sat up on the couch and listened more intently and heard the sound again. He cautiously got up and moved toward Kiba's bedroom, hoping he would not run into anything in the dark. He pushed open the door and switched on the light. Akamaru looked over at him and then back to his master. Kiba appeared to be calling out in his sleep from a nightmare.

Naruto went to the side of the bed and gently took hold of Kiba's shoulder and pressed it lightly.

"Kiba, it's ok," he whispered. "You're having a bad dream."

Kiba's eyes suddenly flew wide open, and he stared blankly for a moment before grasping onto Naruto and burying his face in the blonde's chest. He tightly wrapped his arms around him and Naruto, not sure what to do, put his hand on the back of Kiba's head.

"It was just a dream," he said softly, then heard Kiba take a deep breath and relax a little.

A few minutes later, Kiba's breathing had become regular indicating he had fallen back to sleep still holding onto Naruto. Still concerned, Naruto climbed onto the bed and lay down, letting Kiba rest his head on him still. He lay awake for some time before falling asleep again himself.

The next morning, Kiba began to stir awake, and turned on this side and snuggled up to the body next to him, thinking it was Akamaru. He put his arms around him, but something didn't feel quite right. Then the memory of the dream came back to him and he remembered Naruto coming in to wake him.

"Naruto," he said, gently poking him in the side and sitting up. "You didn't have to look after me all night."

Naruto woke up, realizing he was still in Kiba's bed. He jumped up, and off the bed. "I didn't mean to startle you or anything...I just heard you last night and I didn't mean to stay, I just fell asleep. You were having a really bad dream it sounded like."

"That dream," Kiba said hoarsely. "I hate that dream...I have it all the time."

"What happens in it?"

"Dead people are trying to kill me, and I can't move, and I try to scream but there's no sound."

"Trust me, there was sound in real life," Naruto said. "That's a really scary dream."

"It's terrible," Kiba said. "I hate it so much."

"Next time, you should just dream of me coming in and saving you and destroying all the dead people," Naruto said.

"That would be great," Kiba said smiling brightly.

He got up a minute later and went to make breakfast for himself and Naruto. Naruto offered to take Akamaru out for his morning walk while Kiba made the food. When he returned, Kiba had made French toast and bacon for them with orange juice.


	6. Chapter 6

**Part VI**

Time passed and the semester continued, and classes started getting more intensive as the weeks went on. Kiba got up on Monday, October 2 and sighed. He switched the page on his calendar which hung in the kitchen.

_Another month done already_ he thought as he took his toast out of the toaster for his breakfast and spread peanut butter onto it.

He and Naruto had continued to hang out between classes and have lunch together when they could, but there wasn't as much time for more due to the amount of homework each found piling up on them. A text message arrived as he was eating.

**Hey, this is Shikamaru. I'm not really a stalker, but I stole your number out of Naruto's phone while he was showering the other day. Shino and I are planning a surprise birthday party for him, will you help us?**

Kiba grinned as he read the message and typed back:

**Yeah! sounds fun...when is his birthday?**

**October 10, but since that would be on a Tuesday, we're planning something for this Friday night. Have some friends meet up someplace we can have dinner and surprise him, then all of us go to the Homecoming Carnival afterwards.**

**Orly? That sounds like a good plan! **

**Thanks man. Know of anyplace that might be fun to take him to? I don't get out much, haha.**

**Yeah, the Soda Shoppe, which is downtown...it would be a great place to have a birthday party...look it up online**

**Thanks, I'm heading out to class now, so either I or Shino will give you more details later.**

Kiba finished his toast and headed out to class, excited by the promise of something fun happening at the end of the week, but somewhat dreading the days in between.

**xXxXx**

Friday finally arrived and Kiba was worn out from studying all week, mid-term exams were coming up in two weeks, and Kiba wondered if Naruto would feel as exhausted as he did himself. Shino and Shikamaru had been supplying him information throughout the week regarding the plan for Naruto's surprise birthday party. They had decided that it would be best if Kiba could take Naruto someplace and keep him occupied until they were able to get to the Soda Shoppe and get it decorated. The Soda Shoppe had a special room for parties and Naruto's two roommates had reserved it for Friday beginning at 6:30, at which time they would arrive to put up the decorations along with a couple other friends. That meant that Kiba had to keep Naruto distracted from the end of his 20th Century American Writers class at 3:30 until they were to arrive for the party at 7:00.

Kiba was waiting for Naruto in the Amory Hall lounge and felt like doing nothing but sleeping. He had picked up a cappuccino from the vending machine and was guzzling it down in hopes it would keep him focused. He sent a quick reminder text to Naruto:

**don't forget to meet me as soon as u get done with class**

Kiba planned to take Naruto to the Broken Spine book store that was near the downtown area. It was a large, two-story independent book store that was as close to heaven on earth as Kiba thought he could get. The store's rows upon rows of shelves held endless fascination, and he could never leave the store without an armload of books to purchase. He figured Naruto had probably not been there yet, so it was a good place to occupy the time until the birthday party.

Naruto collapsed into the chair next to Kiba's an hour later and sighed heavily.

"This weekend is going to suck," he said. "I have three papers due next week, all of which are only part-way written, plus I need to study for my Geology exam."

"That sounds pretty bad," Kiba admitted. "I've only two papers to turn in and one is mostly complete. And I have to do a bunch of reading still for two of my classes, and we're going to be starting _The Monk_ in my Goth Lit class...I can't wait! Have you read it?"

"No, I think I may have heard of it though."

"It should be pretty fun!" Kiba said gleefully. "It's supposed to be filled with murder, rape, and incest, all the hallmarks of a good story! My friend Chouji told me all about it when I mentioned to him I had to read it for class."

Naruto laughed and said, "Let me know how it goes, I may borrow it from you."

"Will do," Kiba said. "We should get going...Akamaru is probably waiting to walk, and then we can take my car to the book store. Let's go out to dinner after too. There's a really fun place I want to take you to, it's like an old-fashioned soda fountain."

"Ok, let's go," Naruto said. "Dinner sounds good too."

They walked from campus to Kiba's apartment and then, after a quick walk around the block, they got into Kiba's car.

"Your car is really nice," Naruto said. "You must have worked some serious hours to get this."

"No, I don't work," Kiba said as they pulled away from the curb. "It was given to me by my parents."

"That's certainly nice of them."

"Well, it depends, it's all just compensation for not being around when I was growing up," Kiba said bitterly. "All they did was work all the time, I don't even know any of my family hardly at all, and they certainly don't know me."

"They were probably working hard so they could have money for you, maybe," Naruto said.

"That's not true," Kiba said. "There was so much money before I was even born, neither of them even had to work, but that's what they did, constantly. My father is emotionally crippled and my mother...well, she's unkind I suppose. They don't even like each other."

Kiba suddenly realized what he was saying, and reached over and put his hand on Naruto's forearm.

"I'm sorry," he said. "You didn't know your parents. I probably sound like a terrible person..."

"It's ok," Naruto replied. "Everyone has to deal with different things."

Kiba pulled his hand back, realizing how long he had let it rest on Naruto's arm. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Naruto laughed and fake-punched him in the shoulder.

"You know you can talk to me, you know, if there's things that are bothering you," Naruto said. "I didn't know you and your parents don't get along."

"Thank you," Kiba said. "I just avoid them as much as possible."

Kiba pulled the car up to a parking spot along the curb a block down from the Broken Spine. He glanced at the time on his phone and it saw it to be 4:39.

They went into the store and began aimlessly walking through...each stopping to pick up this or that book as it caught his eye. After a while, Kiba picked out a few books and had settled down into one of the chairs which were dispersed throughout the store in small groups to encourage people to stay and read or do homework, etc.

He was reading intently when Naruto sat down in the chair next to him.

"Hey, Kiba, I guess I'm ready whenever you are," he said. "This place is awesome, but I'm so tired today that I can't really get into it. I'm definitely going to come back after mid-terms though and do some serious exploring."

"Oh, actually, I guess this book distracted me," Kiba said seeing the time as only 6:01 on his phone. "I forgot there was something I came here to actually look for."

"Oh cool, what was it?"

"Mmm, this obscure book I had heard about a while ago," Kiba said, wishing he had made up this lie earlier in his mind so that it would at least sound plausible now. He hadn't bargained for Naruto possibly wanting to leave before the appointed time. "Why don't you sit here and relax, while I go look for it. Do you want anything from the snack shop? I'll bring it back to you..."

"Yeah, maybe a bottle of water," he answered. "I'm kind of thirsty."

Kiba purchased a bottle of water for his friend and took it back to him. He then left to go look for the 'obscure book' he had supposedly been on a mission to find. It was only 6:15, and he knew he would now have to draw out the time. He began to just wander around the fiction section to waste time.

During this wandering around, he turned out of one aisle to go into the next only to find Naruto looking for him.

"There you are!" he said. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Oh, no, they don't have it," Kiba lied again. "I looked it up in one of the database kiosks...but then I remembered I wanted to check if they had a book of Siegfried Sasson's poems."

"Do they?"

"I'm not sure, I was just headed over to the poetry section..."

Naruto chuckled, "Why didn't you just check the database when you looked for the other book?" he asked.

"Oh!" Kiba felt like a cornered animal now. "That was kind of dumb, wasn't it? I guess I'm not thinking clearly tonight..."

"No problem," Naruto said. "Let's go check the poetry section."

They went to the other side of the store and Kiba began looking through almost every other volume on the shelves to stall for time. Finally, after nearly tearing the section apart and re-arranging all the books, the time was late enough to where they could safely leave.

"Well, let's check out," he said.

Naruto went over to scan the magazine racks near the store entrance while Kiba checked out. He sent a quick text to Shikamaru and Shino that they would be leaving in a few minutes.

After he had paid for his purchase, Kiba walked out of the store with Naruto following him. They got into the car and Kiba slowly drove over to the Soda Shoppe, which was only a few blocks away from the book store.

Shikamaru had alerted the hostess to watch for the two boys and she led them back to the private room when they entered the restaurant.

Naruto looked up to realize that his roommates were standing before him and the room was decorated with different colored crepe banners and a large sign that read 'Happy Birthday' in big, bright letters.

"What?!" he said in disbelief. "How did I know think this was going to happen? Shikamaru and Shino, you can expect retribution for this! And Lee, you came too!"

"Happy early birthday, Naruto," Kiba said.

"Thanks, Kiba and thank you all!" Naruto said, still a little in disbelief. "Kiba, this is my friend Lee, who is also in my Geology class. Lee, this is Kiba."

"It's nice to meet you, friend of Naruto!" Lee nearly shouted, jumping across the room to where Kiba stood. "I am so happy to be at the celebration of our friend's birth!"

"How do you do?" Kiba replied, slightly taken aback by Lee's exuberance and boisterousness.

"We're waiting for one more person," Shikamaru said, "but she should be here soon."

They sat down at the large, round table in the center of the room. Kiba sat to Naruto's left then Lee, Shino, Shikamaru, and and empty spot for the absent guest on Naruto's right. They scanned the menu as a waitress came in to distribute glasses of water to each of the seats.

The Soda Shoppe was styled after the soda fountains that had been popular in decades past. It had a fun atmosphere with a black and white tiled floor and white formica tables chairs upholstered in pastel colored vinyl. The restaurant served hamburgers and sandwiches with the usual side items plus ice cream sundaes, floats, milkshakes, phosphates, and sodas flavored with actual syrups.

A short while later, the last guest arrived.

"Sabina!" Naruto exclaimed in surprise. "I can't believe you came too!"

Kiba's eyes lowered to the table a bit sadly.

_I wonder if they are dating now_ he thought. _Naruto was right though, she is very pretty._

Sabina greeted Lee, whom she knew from the Geology class she and Naruto also had together. (The three were all lab partners for the class.) She then introduced herself to the remaining three guests.

"_Bonsoir, mademoiselle, je suis Kiba. Comment allez-vous?_" Kiba said to her. "_Votre famille est d'Indochine?_"

"_Bonsoir, monsieur,_" Sabina replied. "_Oui, nous possédions une ferme en Indochine il ya des années._"

"_Je suis fasciné par l'histoire._"

"_Puis un jour, je vais vous dire à ce sujet._"

"_Merci, mademoiselle._"

"I didn't know you spoke French, Kiba," Naruto said.

"I had it for three years in high school," Kiba answered. "I don't use it much though."

The company ordered and ate their food with lots of conversation, but Kiba seemed to have become rather melancholy at the appearance of the young girl who seemed to fascinate Naruto so. After they all finished eating, Naruto was presented with five birthday gifts, one from each of his friends.

He opened Shikamaru's gift first. Inside were two tshirts, one white and one blue.

"One is to replace the one I accidentally spilled coffee onto, and the other is for your birthday," he explained.

"Thanks," Naruto said. "You didn't have to replace the one though, it was an accident."

Next was Shino's gift, which had been tied with several ribbons and was causing Naruto much effort to get open. He finally managed to remove all the wrappings and opened the box, pulling out a black braided bracelet with a sterling clasp.

"Wow, this is cool, Shino!" he said. "Thanks!"

"You're welcome," Shino replied. "It's made from woven beetle shells..."

"Whaaaaat?" Naruto said.

"I'm kidding...it's leather."

Naruto next opened Kiba's present, which he had dropped off to Shikamaru earlier that day. Inside was a black onyx pyramid paper weight.

"Nice!" he said. "This is really, cool, thank you, Kiba."

"Onyx is supposed to keep away evil spirits," Kiba said.

"We should have had that the night you visited," Naruto said, causing the four boys to laugh remembering their excursion to the basement of Eddowes Hall.

Naruto opened Lee's gift next, which turned out to be a book titled _The Practical Guide to Staying Fit and Youthful_ by Guy Maito.

"My personal trainer wrote that book, Naruto, and I am happy to share his wisdom with you!" Lee nearly yelled. "If you want, I can get it autographed for you!"

Only Sabina's gift now remained, which Naruto opened. In the small case was a silver bookmark engraved with the quote by the French writer George Sand 'Life resembles a novel more often than novels resemble life'.

"Thank you, Sabina," he said. "It's so beautiful!"

"You're welcome, Naruto," she replied. "There's a shop in Paris that sells these, and so I had my fiancé send one by overnight air so it would arrive in time."

"_Etes-vous engagés à se marier, mademoiselle?_" Kiba said suddenly.

"_Oui, monsieur,_" she answered.

Shortly afterwards, with Kiba's mood somewhat improved by the news that Sabina had a fiancé, the group left to go to the University Homecoming Carnival.

Each year, on a huge field out behind the campus, the school made arrangements for a traveling carnival to come for homecoming weekend. There were several rides set up, including a ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, and several others. A midway was set up as well with food vendors and all manner of games of chance or skill.

As Kiba and Naruto drove back across town, Kiba pulled a book out of the bag containing his purchase from the Broken Spine. He handed it to Naruto. It was a copy of _The Monk_.

"I picked out an extra present for you tonight," he said.

"Kiba, thank you," Naruto replied. "Thanks for being part of my birthday party too."

The friends all walked around together, enjoying the festive atmosphere and all the bright, flashing lights. Naruto and Lee were attempting to get Sabina to play some of the carnival games and Kiba, Shikamaru, and Shino were all sitting on a bench a little ways away, waiting for them.

"Thanks for helping us out, man," Shikamaru said to Kiba.

"It was cool," Kiba said. "But it was so hard to keep him occupied, he kept wanting to leave early!"

"Ha, you should have just started making out with him," Shino said. "That would have kept him busy."

"Shino!" Kiba laughed. "I don't think that would have gone over so well. I don't know any straight guys who make out with other guys."

Shino and Shikamaru looked at each other in disbelief.

"You mean, you don't know?" Shikamaru asked.

"Naruto isn't straight," Shino added.

"What?" Kiba said, puzzled by this revelation, but then connected several dots suddenly.

"Naruto gets another birthday present tonight," Shino quietly said to Shikamaru, who punched him in the arm to keep him from saying anything else.

Kiba's mind was processing information at a rapid rate, causing him to become quiet, but a smile crossed his face as he sheepishly looked from Shino to Shikamaru.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part VII**

Kiba felt the warm body pressing against him from behind as he lay in his bed. He arched his back and pressed backwards, wanting to feel more as he was encircled by the strong arms. He felt a light kiss on his shoulder and he pressed into it, longing for further touch. He pushed his head backwards to feel his dark hair brushing against the blonde hair behind him. He closed his eyes, savoring the lethargic feeling, almost as if he were drugged.

He turned his head to the side and kissed Naruto. His lips were soft and full. Kiba was wearing the gold Nike shorts that Naruto had slept in the night he had come over in September and a white tshirt. Naruto was wearing nothing. A moment later, Kiba felt Naruto's hand slip inside the shorts, feeling for his erection, grasping it and rubbing it against his fist. Kiba softly moaned at the pleasure he was receiving.

Naruto moved around so that he was now on top of Kiba, face-to-face with him. He put his arms around Kiba and kissed him again. Kiba closed his eyes in ecstasy.

"I want to make love to you, Kiba," Naruto whispered urgently.

"I...I don't know if that's a good idea..." Kiba said, keeping his eyes closed.

"Ugh," Naruto groaned, almost angrily. "I don't care. Just let me do it."

Naruto sat back on his knees between Kiba's legs and lifted him slightly. Kiba felt Naruto entering him, and he lay back against the pillows, moaning softly. He opened his eyes to find Naruto's face inches from his, drops of sweat dripping from the blonde's forehead. Kiba felt himself slipping off into oblivion as Naruto took him, the orgasm rising within him, crying out as he released...

The alarm clocked jarred Kiba from his slumber, startled, disoriented, and feeling out of breath. He lay still in his bed, on his back, alone, the effect of the dream still potently fresh in his mind. He took a deep breath and looked around the room. Akamaru had left the bed and was sitting by the door with his back to Kiba. Kiba's face, chest, and stomach were covered in a thin layer of sweat, and he discovered his boxers were completely soaked from the dream.

"That was fucking intense," he said to himself. "I haven't had a wet dream since I was a kid."

He got out of bed, and noticed Akamaru still refusing to look at him. He pushed at the dog with his foot in a teasing manner, rubbing his fur the wrong way.

"Don't be a prude," he said. "Even I like sex once in a while."

He walked into the bathroom to shower, thinking to himself how glad he was that it was Saturday, no classes today, but he did have a lot of reading to do still. Well, he had all afternoon to get that done.

It was the weekend after mid-term exams, so two weeks since Naruto's birthday party when Kiba had found out by accident that Naruto was into guys. This information still fascinated Kiba since he had been so wrong about his friend and also because he had not yet told Naruto that he had thought he was straight for most of the semester.

The two had not really had much time together since the birthday party because of their exams and both had papers due at that time. Kiba felt a little more calm now that the exam week was over. Naruto had asked him to go out to dinner with him that evening and Kiba was looking forward to it.

After he finished his shower, he shaved, and then went back to his room and put on only a clean pair of boxers and a pair of light blue gym shorts. He went out to the kitchen and noticed Akamaru sitting by the door. He grabbed his jacket off the couch where he had dropped it the night before and slipped on his shoes.

"Come on, grumpy," he said as he opened the door and walked out into the cold morning air. The dog bound out through the doorway and down the stairs. Kiba followed slowly, watching the leaves falling from the trees. Most had already fallen by now, but a few still lingered in yellow, red, and orange.

Kiba walked over to his mailbox and peeked inside. He almost never got any real mail, so he only checked it once a week or sometimes less often than that. There was a pile of advertisements which he took and stuffed into a recycling container. Akamaru came back a moment later and looked at his master, somewhat disdainfully Kiba thought and then they went back up the stairs.

Kiba kicked off his shoes and tossed his jacket back on the couch. He wandered out to the kitchen to make himself breakfast. He took out a small frying pan from the cupboard and placed it on the stove. Next he retrieved four eggs from the refrigerator and some butter. He cracked the eggs into a bowl and rapidly beat them with a fork, dropped some butter into the pan and turned on the burner to start it melting. He dumped all the eggs into the melted butter and added salt, pepper, and cayenne. He dropped some bread into the toaster as the eggs cooked and got out two plates. As the eggs began to set, the took a spatula and stirred them and broke them up as they cooked to make scrambled eggs. He divided up the eggs between the two plates and grabbed the toast, breaking one piece up into smaller pieces and putting it on top of one of the plates of eggs. He set this one down on the ground and took the other over to the dining table.

Akamaru sprung forward and began devouring the breakfast. Kiba chuckled to himself as he watched and ate his own breakfast. After he finished, Akamaru came over and lay his head on Kiba's knee.

"Oh, you love me again?" Kiba asked, chuckling more.

He put the dishes away into the dishwasher and then settled down on the couch to try and slog his way through all his reading. Naruto wasn't not supposed to arrive until 6:00 and it was only 10:30 now. He would be able to (hopefully) get a lot accomplished and still have time to shower again and change before Naruto arrived.

**xXxXx**

At 4:30, Kiba was going stir-crazy. He had read and read all day, taking notes and keeping track of ideas for different papers he would have to write in his classes. He finally slammed his book shut and dragged himself off the couch. Akamaru was snoozing in front of the fireplace, so Kiba got down on the floor and wrapped his arms around the big dog. Akamaru woke up and licked his master's face and Kiba grabbed his and started to pull him over onto his back, which Akamaru didn't like and he started barking and wriggling to get free from Kiba's grip. He managed to escape and then ran just far enough away to be out of Kiba's grip, then he turned and barked. Took a few jumpy steps forward and barked again. Kiba pretended to be uninterested but then suddenly took a swipe, trying to grasp the dog again. Akamaru barked and nimbly jumped out of the boy's reach. They repeated this a few times before Akamaru moved in for an attack, pouncing at Kiba and pinning him to the ground with a hefty paw. He flexed his leg muscles so that his claws clenched against Kiba's skin and he barked triumphantly.

"Ok, ok...I'm done," Kiba said. "I need to shower, then we can walk."

He got up and went to the bathroom, turning on the water to run so it would get nice and hot. He went back to his room and opened the closet, unsure of what to where tonight.

_Better err on the side of over-dressed _he thought, pulling a pair of black pants from the closet that were pin-striped in silver. Then he took down a black v-neck sweater from the self and set it on the bed. He went back to the bathroom, dropping his shorts and boxers to the floor and jumping in the shower. He began to relax as the hot water rushed over him.

After the shower he returned to his room to get dressed. He toweled off and left the towel on the floor, walking over to his dresser and taking out a pair of black socks, black boxer briefs, and a gray tank tshirt. He put these on and then went back into the bathroom to brush his teeth, hanging the wet towel on the wall rack. Returning back to his room, he put on his pants and sweater and a thin, sterling chain around his neck.

Walking back out to the living room with a pair of black shoes, he sat down on the couch to put on the shoes and tie them. He took Akamaru out on his lead for a long walk around before Naruto arrived. As they walked through the streets a text message arrived from Shino.

**Naruto is dressed up really nice tonight, be sure to wear something nice. Where are u guys going?**

Kiba typed back:

**He hasnt said anything speicifc about where we'r going...thanks for the tip on dressing up tho. :)**

**Have fun then!**

Naruto arrived only a couple of minutes after Kiba had come back from his walk. He came into the apartment smiling. He was wearing a dark blue sweater with a light blue button-up shirt underneath and a pair of dark khaki trousers.

"How did your last exam go on Thursday?" he asked after sitting down on the couch with Kiba.

"Ok, I think," he answered. "Overall I am sure I passed all of them, but it certainly was not fun."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm confident I passed too, but I'm glad all that's over. At least until finals."

"Yeah, me too!" Kiba said. "Where did you want to go eat tonight?"

"Well," Naruto began, "I didn't really think about it when I asked, but what is around here that we can walk to?"

"Nothing actually, so in that case, you can drive my car."

Seriously?" Naruto asked. "That would be sweet. I guess I'll let you pick where we go then. I still don't know the area well enough to decide. What's your favorite restaurant here?"

"MMMMMmmm," Kiba said. "Chen Lee's is the best! We should go there, I haven't taken you there yet. You absolutely must get an egg roll too, they're the best in the universe!"

"All right, sounds good," Naruto said. "I'm starving!"

At the restaurant, Ming was behind the counter again, as always.

"Oh, Kiba! You back again," she said. "How's your classes going?"

"They aren't too bad," Kiba said, then joked, "I am pretty smart, you know."

"If you so smart, why you only order one thing here all time?" Ming asked, then waved her pad of paper that she wrote down orders on at him as if to shoo him away. "I know what you want so I not even ask. How about you, sir?"

Naruto had been enjoying the lively exchange between the two and did a quick scan of the menu board.

"I'll have the beef and shrimp yakiramen," he said, "Can you make it extra spicy? And also an egg roll and crab rangoons."

"Sure," Ming said. "I'll have it right out to you."

Kiba was about to hand his credit card to Ming when Naruto stopped him. "No, Kiba, let me buy it for you this time."

Kiba hesitated, unsure if he wanted to let Naruto do that. Then Ming said "You better let him or he get mad and not come back!"

Kiba relented and Ming laughed loudly at her own joke. The two boys sat down at an open booth toward the back of the restaurant. The place was nearly at full capacity.

"Thanks, dude," Kiba said. "That's nice of you to buy."

"Yeah, you've made me dinner lots of times, and breakfast and helped plan my birthday party..."

"Glarg," Kiba said, not liking or being used to being praised. It felt a little stifling to him.

"Don't 'glarg' me," Naruto said, half joking, "It's true. You do a lot for me, and I sometimes feel like I don't do enough for you. I don't really know a lot about you, and I like being friends with you. I'd like to know more..."

Kiba suddenly felt bad. _He probably thinks I don't trust him, or that we just have a superficial friendship _he thought.

_"That's all you ever have, isn't it?"_ Kiba's inner conscience piped up. _"You know you can't tell people everything, they's cut you if they know..."_

_Naruto isn't like that._

_"Isn't he? You think you're going to be friends with him or that he's going to love you just because you found out he likes guys?"_

_He's different..._

_"I wouldn't take that chance...you're too cold to let anyone in all the way..."_

Kiba bit his lip, trying to silence the demon that plagued him. He looked at Naruto and smiled, crushing the voice into silence.

"What would you like to know?" he asked.

"Well, do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"No, just me."

"I don't either...I always wanted to have a brother though, or a sister, someone to hang out with who's always there no matter what. I had cousins I played with when I was little, but they were never around all the time."

"Yeah, my cousins are quite a bit older than I am, so I didn't really ever know them that well. They were mostly grown up when I was still little."

"I know you don't get along with your parents, so I won't ask about them, and you told me about your grandmother before. I guess we're sort of similar, although not exactly."

"I think we're pretty different," Kiba said. "You are so open and don't hold anything back. I'm so reserved, I don't open up to anyone, and I keep everything inside."

"That's just who you are though," Naruto said, grinning. "I guess I've caught on to that so I don't push you too much. You're really observant though. Like when you showed me all those places around campus that I probably never would have found and you always know where all my classrooms are. You shared all that with me, so maybe you aren't as closed off as you think."

"I usually am by myself a lot of the times, so I end up hearing people talking about the most random things. I guess I must just hide all that away to pull it out when it's useful."

"That's cool," Naruto said. "Just so you know, you can always tell me anything, I'll help you as best I can, even if it's just to listen."

"Thanks," Kiba said. "I may take you up on that one day. But there is something light and funny that I wanted to tell you about, I think you'll laugh, but it's kind of embarrassing for me."

"I won't laugh at you," Naruto promised.

"Well, remember the night of your birthday party, and you know how I had to keep you out until we met the others at the Soda Shoppe?"

"Yeah."

"Well, later on, at the carnival, I was sitting with your roommates and I was telling them how you wanted to leave before we were supposed to, and Shino told me I should have just made out with you to keep you occupied...

"I'm going to kill him!" Naruto said.

"Naruto, I thought you were straight until he said that," Kiba said. "I didn't know..."

"Really?" Naruto said. "I've known I was gay for a long time, and I don't hide it, but I don't really talk about it a lot either. To me, if you have to bring up that you're either gay or straight all the time, making an issue out of it, that makes it seem like it is too much of how you identify yourself. I feel like if you just be yourself, and you treat people respectfully, maybe some day we won't need these labels. We're all just human after all. Most of the time I assume everyone knows I'm gay, but more often than not, I get the reaction like yours, that I seem to be straight."

"I understand what your saying, and I think you state it very well."

"Maybe I'm just kind of oblivious about it though, because I just assumed my roommates thought I was straight, and I don't bring up the fact that I'm not because I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable or make them think they need to treat me differently. Both Shikamaru and Shino knew I liked guys though. So my whole idea of letting them think I was straight was silly in the end."

"That's kind of funny," Kiba said. "I like your roommates, they're really cool."

"Yeah, I think I was lucky for once when I was placed in the same room as them."

The two talked for a while longer before heading back to Kiba's apartment. Naruto was temporarily satisfied at having had Kiba open up a little more.

"You should come up and hang out," Kiba said. "Let's watch a movie and get drunk again, it is Saturday night after mid-terms!"

Naruto complied, letting Kiba make more of the same shots they had before, only they had a considerable amount more of them. They were sitting on the living room floor. Kiba had made them about 20 shots each, and they were both completely drunken, barely even able to stand up at times.

"Kiba, you're really cool," Naruto said. "I'm really glad I ran into to you on the first day of the semester."

"Naruto!" Kiba shouted and went over to him and wrapped his arms around the blonde boy and hugged him tightly. "I never thanked you enough for saving me."

"Here's a hug for you too," Naruto said, putting his own arms around Kiba's shoulders and holding him tightly.

"Naruto, you don't look a thing like Jesus, but you talk like a gentleman," Kiba said, laughing softly.

"What?" Naruto said.

"It's from a song, _When You Were Young_ by The Killers. It might have been written about me..."

Kiba rolled away after a moment, poking Naruto in his side and laughing.

"You have to stay again tonight because you're drunk," he said. "Let Shino and Shikamaru know."

"I told them before I left I wouldn't be home until tomorrow," Naruto revealed.

"That's so sneaky!" Kiba said. "You knew all along!"

"I did!"

"I'm so tired," he said, his eyes barely staying open again. "We should go to sleep. Come on."

Kiba pulled Naruto into his room. He started to pull off his sweater, leaving on the gray tank tshirt. He picked up the light blue shorts he had been wearing earlier in the day and handed them to Naruto.

"You can wear these," he said.

Naruto pulled off his sweater and the shirt underneath at the same time as Kiba unbuttoned his pants and let them fall to the floor. He sat down on the edge of the bed and removed his socks, then went to his dresser and took out a pair of cotton pyjamas and pulled them on over his boxer briefs and crawled up onto the bed and got under the covers. Naruto took off his pants and put on Kiba's shorts over his boxers.

"Where are the blankets for my bed?" Naruto asked.

"You better stay here tonight," Kiba said pulling back the covers.

Naruto climbed into the bed next to him, laying down on his back against the pillow as Kiba snuggled up to him, resting his head on Naruto's bare chest. Naruto wrapped his arm around Kiba.

"It's ok," Kiba mumbled, so close to passing out now. "We're just friends..."

_That's all right with me _Naruto thought. _At least for now it's all right._

"Where's 'Maru?" Kiba asked. "He'll be mad if we don't let him up."

"Come on, Akamaru," Naruto called, pulling Kiba closer to him in order to make room for the dog to lay down. He reached over and turned out the light, listening to Kiba softly breathing against his chest as he too fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Part VIII**

Kiba awoke the next morning before Naruto did. He snuggled down under the covers more, feeling cozy. Naruto was asleep next to him, facing him, so he laid his head against the blonde's chest, and lay still, hoping not to awake Naruto before he awoke naturally.

_It must be quite late Kiba_ thought to himself. _The sun is bright already._

Akamaru stood up from where he was laying at the end of the bed. He walked up and put his head down on Kiba's shoulder, pushing his nose against the boy's neck.

"Gaahh, that's cold," he whispered. Akamaru pushed his nose again, and licked at his master's face. "I bet you want to go out, huh?"

Akamaru barked enthusiastically.

"Shhhhh," Kiba said, hoping not to wake the sleeping Naruto.

Akamaru was in a playful mood now though at the prospect of him master taking him outside. He barked again and began bouncing around the bed, climbing over top of Kiba and wedging himself in between Kiba and Naruto, licking Kiba's face in the process.

Kiba rolled off to the side of the bed as Naruto stirred, coming out of his sleep. Kiba noticed and quickly left the bed, feeling a bit awkward. Akamaru leapt from the bed and began dancing around Kiba's legs as sat down on the floor.

"Calm down, Akamaru," he said. "I'll take you out in a minute."

He looked up and saw Naruto was awake now and smiling at them. "Hey," he said, smiling.

"Hey," Kiba said. "Sorry about waking you up…someone is antsy to go out."

"It's ok," Naruto said, sitting up in bed, the sheet falling down from his chest.

Kiba started a moment at Naruto, unable to resist. Naruto got up a minute later, stretching in the sunlight that was pouring in the open blinds.

"I'm starving," he said. "Want to go out for breakfast?"

"I think I've probably got something we can make," Kiba answered. "Sundays are lazy days to just stay home and relax."

"That sounds good to me."

"Well, I had better take Akamaru out for a walk before he tears my arm off," Kiba said getting up and going to the closet. He took a white hoodie out and put it on over the tank tshirt he was still wearing from the night before, grabbed his blue Adidas track pants and pulled them on after removing his pyjamas.

"Cool," Naruto said. "I'll meet you in the kitchen in 10."

Kiba returned after a quick walk around the block. Naruto was sitting at the dining table waiting for him. He had put on one of Kiba's tshirts that had found on the floor in Kiba's room.

"Let's see what I've got to eat," he said after kicking off his shoes and pulling off the hoodie. He rummaged around in the refrigerator for a moment. "Eggs, bacon, and toast…sound good?"

"That sounds delicious!" Naruto said.

"Cool, how do you like your eggs cooked?"

"I like sunny-side up!"

Kiba began cooking the bacon and getting the rest of the food ready for the breakfast as Naruto sat at the table. The blonde picked up Kiba's Winter Course Schedule Book from where it was sitting with a piece of paper on which Kiba had been trying to piece together this class schedule for the next semester. Naruto looked through the book, thinking about what classes he would take.

"Ugh, registration starts next week, doesn't it?" he said, already knowing the answer. "I've got a few classes picked out, but I better hurry up and figure out the rest."

"Yeah, I have got to get that stupid algebra class out of the way," Kiba said sighing. "I have been putting it off way too long. I hate math…"

"Well, if you take it, I'll help you if you need it," Naruto offered. "I'm pretty good at math."

"Thanks," he replied. "We should take a class together...if there is something that we both could use...do you need any electives?"

"Yeah, actually I do, because the university policy for transfers requires them to take a certain number of credits at the university before you can graduate, and because of that, I have to take more credits than I actually need to finish all of my major's required courses."

"Hmmm," Kiba mused. "We should be able to find something then."

Kiba had finished cooking the bacon and put it on some paper towels to drain while he made the eggs. He made Naruto's first, cracking the eggs into the hot bacon grease so the whites would start to set. He put bread in the toaster, and continued cooking the eggs.

"Hope your arteries are clean," he said. "They may not be after this breakfast."

Kiba scooped the eggs gently out of the pan and placed them on a plate along with half the bacon he had cooked and two pieces of toast. He handed it off to Naruto.

"Have to eat it while it's hot!" he said. "I'll be with you in a minute."

Kiba poured most of the bacon grease out into a small bowl, leaving a little in the pan to scramble his own eggs in. His toast and the eggs finished at the same time, and he put them on a plate with the remaining bacon. Then he grabbed two glasses and a jug of orange juice from the refrigerator, sat them down on the table.

"Sorry, forgot this," he said as Naruto took the jug and filled the two glasses.

Kiba put his plate down on the table and retrieved the bowl of bacon grease. He poured it out onto Akamaru's dry food. The dog had been patiently sitting next to his dish wagging his tail, knowing what would be coming for him.

"That will make his fur shiny," Kiba said.

"Really?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe...it's what my granny used to say anyway."

The two sat eating while Naruto continued looking through the schedule book. Kiba had pulled over to him the paper he had written his possible schedule on. He picked up a his pen from the table and crossed out a few options he had picked out. He studied the paper a little more, then crossed out another class.

"I think I can get all my classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; or just Monday and Wednesday," he said.

"Oh really?" Naruto said. "Do you have a piece of paper I could use?"

"Sure," Kiba said, getting up and taking a few sheets from his printer and a pen from the kitchen. He handed them to Naruto.

"Thanks!" Naruto said. "I need to take both Literary Research and Literary Interpretation, but of course there is only one section of each and the one is Monday/Wednesday and the other is Tuesday/Thursday...fuck!"

"Dude, that sucks," Kiba said as he started to create a grid to plan out his schedule on.

"And the Advanced Creative Writing course I need to take is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Fuck! I'll have classes five days a week again next semester."

"No fun," Kiba said, blocking out some times on his grid for when the classes he wanted were to be held. "I think I'll take American Poets, hopefully there will be a long period of studying Poe..._Ulalume_ was awesome, and _The Bells_ also...and the lost Lenore."

"What's your favorite story by him?" Naruto asked. "I'm partial to _The Cask of Amantillado_."

"It's hard to decide on a favorite," Kiba said. "Maybe _Hop-Frog_ or _The Masque of the Red Death_. The one that is most terrifying to me though is _Berenice_."

"Yeah, that was gruesome," Naruto agreed.

"Glarg," Kiba said. "I guess I'd better take a couple more history classes too...but what can we both take? Look through the book and see if you can find anything."

Naruto began looking through the schedule book more closely as he drank his orange juice. Each time he found something that might work, he would let Kiba know and Kiba would write it down on one of the sheets of paper from his printer. They would then check to see if it conflicted with any of the other classes they planned to take. If it did, Kiba would cross it off.

In the end, they were left with three choices they both agreed sounded interesting: Japanese Fables, 20th Century American Films, and Beginner's Botany.

"I think the Japanese Fables class would be fun," Kiba said. "And it would be good credit for both of us. I don't know about the Botany class, it has a lab with it, so maybe more work than it's worth since we would just be taking it for 'fun'."

"Yeah, the Japanese Fables course would be cool, but I'm going to have so much literature coursework next semester already. Maybe we should do the films course, something different. And how much work can that be? Oh, wait, it's only on Tuesday and Thursday nights. That will screw your schedule."

"Let's look up the course description online," Kiba said, going to his room to retrieve his Macbook. He turned it on and navigated to the university's webpage and then to the online course catalogue. When he found it, he read it to Naruto:

Student in this course will study the medium of American-made film as a cultural reference archive as well as a source of entertainment. Topics will include mood and setting; use of light to convey meaning; directorial style; costume and set design; dialogue; acting styles; genre; and cultural legacy. Films from the 1920s through the 1980s will be viewed and discussed. This course contains a writing element and will require students to submit written work as part of the course requirements.

"That sounds fun," Kiba said. "Let's go for it. If you have to suffer class five days a week, I will too."

"Yeah, I think it will be a nice break from these heavier courses I'm getting into now," Naruto said. "OK, so I'm going to take Literary Interpretation, Literary Research, and Advanced Creative Writing plus the films course."

"I'll have films, American Poets, Algebra, and a history course...let's see," Kiba said, taking the course book from Naruto and scanning through the history sections. "I guess I could take Renaissance Europe, it fits nicely between the algebra and poets classes. And we'll be able to have lunch together still."

"Sweet!" Naruto said. "I think I can register Wednesday afternoon. When will you be able to?"

"Not until Friday morning," Kiba said. "Hopefully films won't fill up too fast."

"Yeah," Naruto said, stretching and yawning. "Breakfast was awesome, Kiba, thanks for making it. You've kind of ruined me for eating in the dorm dining room now though."

"Sorry," Kiba said. "I would guess it's pretty bad."

"Yeah, one of these days, Shikamaru and Shino are going to gang up on me for ditching them so much."

"Awww," Kiba said with a laugh. "Why don't we all hang out again one weekend and I'll cook, so they will be ruined for the dorm food too?"

"That would be fun!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'll let them know when I go back today."

"Or would that be totally mean? To ruin them from eating at your dorm?"

"It might be in the long run, but I know they would both appreciate a good meal."

"Cool, we'll have to pick a date then, check with them later."

Kiba got up from the table and started collecting the dishes to put into the dishwasher. Naruto handed him his plate so it could be added to the dishwasher also.

"Would you mind if I took a shower?" Naruto asked.

"No, go ahead," Kiba told him. "The towels are in the closet on the top shelf."

"Thanks," Naruto said, getting up from the table, then suddenly he turned and asked, "Are you going home at Thanksgiving break?"

"I'm supposed to, but I don't really want to," Kiba said, becoming melancholy.

"Why don't you come with me to my grandparents then? It would be nice for you to go I think, and you wouldn't have to go home that way."

Kiba laughed a little sadly.

"That's nice of you to offer...let me think about it, ok? I really don't want to go home."

"All right," Naruto said. "But I'm not going to let you forget. I'll be reminding you regularly."

"You can do that," Kiba said, smiling. "I can't guarantee I won't punch you out though!"

Naruto laughed out loud at his friend's unexpected answer, Kiba laughing along from Naruto's reaction.


	9. Chapter 9

**Part IX**

Naruto was laying in his bed in room 3011 of Eddowes Hall, thinking about things. It was the first week of November and he was feeling a little depressed. Not only from the increasing workload of his classes as the semester wound down to its close, but also because he was still conflicted by his relationship with Kiba.

_I really like his personality_ Naruto thought to himself. _He's fun, intelligent, cute as hell, and he seems like a really good person. I just don't know if he thinks of me the same way. Sometimes when we're together, I just want to grab ahold of him and kiss him, but I don't want to fuck things up. I did that once before with someone, and I don't want things to be awkward between us. On the other hand though, he let's me sleep with him any time I stay over at his apartment and he's so cuddly at those times. Maybe he wants to go further, but I'm just not sure. I also feel like he's holding back, he so reserved at times and becomes distant..._

Suddenly a pillow slammed into Naruto's face from above.

"Gah!" He screamed in surprise, "What the hell?!"

"NARUTO!" Shikamaru said looking down from the top bunk. "I've said your name five times now. Are you completely spaced out?"

"I'm sorry," Naruto said. "I guess I was thinking too hard."

"Hey, what's wrong?" Shikamaru asked, climbing down from his bunk and sitting cross-legged on the end of Naruto's bed, facing him with his back leaning against the bed post.

"I don't want to bother you with my problems," Naruto began.

"Dude, I know I say everything is a bother all the time," Shikamaru admitted. "I don't mean you are. My friends are important to me, so just tell me what's going on."

"Well, it has to do with Kiba..." Naruto started to say.

"Yeah, I already figured that much out," Shikamaru said, laughing a little. "Tell me what the problem is."

Naruto related to Shikamaru the events of his and Kiba's interactions and how they were causing him to feel conflicted. After listening to Naruto's narrative, Shikamaru sat silently for several minutes with his eyes closed and his arms crossed.

"I'm not sure if you're going to like my advice," he began, "You just need to ask him and get over your fear about what happened in your past. If you ask, you're being respectful about his feelings too instead of just, you know, kissing him suddenly out of no where. That would be much more alarming and likely to cause things to become awkward."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Naruto said. "I did ask him to go back home with me at Thanksgiving Break, so it's a three hour ride. I'll bring it up then. Nothing like being trapped in a confined place to get something off your chest..."

**xXxXx**

The Cosmo-Demonic Coal-Burning University of North America was closed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday the week of Thanksgiving to allow students time to travel home if they wanted to. The dorms remained open for those students who were staying over break, but very few did. Shino, Shikamaru, and Naruto were all heading out Wednesday morning, and they said their goodbyes to each other and went their separate ways.

Naruto had been relieved when Kiba finally consented to go with him over the holiday break to visit Naruto's grandparents instead of going to his own home. He did have to agree to some conditions however, which weren't really that bad. The first had been, of course, that Akamaru go along also since no one would be around to care for him otherwise. Second was that Kiba wanted to return on Friday morning, which Naruto was a little less enthused about, but decided it would be all right when Kiba asked him to stay at his apartment for the rest of the break.

Naruto walked through the cold morning to Kiba's apartment. The frost from the previous night had not yet burned off, and the sky was completely overcast. When he arrived, he found Kiba pacing around the apartment. There was a backpack sitting next to the door along with Kiba's messenger bag. Akamaru's food and water dishes were in a bag next to them along with a container of his food and his lead. Kiba seemed to be having some anxiety about leaving.

"You're sure no one will mind you showing up with some strange guy?" he asked for the hundredth time since agreeing to go with Naruto. "Maybe you should call again and check."

"I've called twice already, Kiba, it's fine," Naruto said as he reached out and pulled Kiba's hand away from his face. "Don't bite your nails."

"Sorry," Kiba said. "Well, the plants are watered, the furnace turned down, and the laundry and dishwasher emptied...I guess I'm ready."

"OK," Naruto said, picking up Kiba's keys from the counter. "Let's go."

He picked up Kiba's backpack and Akamaru's bag and headed out, letting Kiba and his dog go down the stairs ahead of him and locking the apartment door. Kiba let Akamaru run about the yard while Naruto went to the car and put his own backpack in as well as the other bags. He got in the car and started the engine to let it warm up and melt the frost from the windows.

Kiba opened the passenger door a few minutes later and pulled the seat forward so Akamaru could get into the backseat. He curled up on a black blanket that was kept there for him and quickly went to sleep. Then Kiba sat down in the car, putting his messenger bag at his feet.

"You get to drive," he said, since that's where you sat.

"I don't mind," Naruto said. "I would have offered to anyway."

"I actually really hate driving," Kiba said. "Except at night sometimes out on the country roads with all the windows open and the music turned up. If you get tired though, we can switch."

"I think it will be OK, it's only three hours."

They pulled away from the curb and Naruto went around the block, turning off onto Half Moon Street, which would take him toward the highway.

"Oh, I brought a CD," he said after a few miles, pulling it from his coat pocket. "It's Eurobeat! Have you ever watched _Initial D_?"

"Yeah, I watched the first season," Kiba said. "It was pretty good."

"This is all music from the series! It's really good driving music."

He put the CD into the dashboard player as they drove out onto the highway. A moment later, the wild, erratic music began playing, making Kiba laugh.

"I remember this shit," he said laughing. "It's pure insanity most of the time."

"That's why it's so fun!" Naruto said, cranking up the volume from the controls on the steering wheel.

"Well, just don't start drifting," Kiba shouted above the music. Naruto turned that volume back down to a respectable level, and they drive on listening to the music.

"Oh, I like this one," he said as a new song started. "It's called "Everybody's Warming.' It's not as insane as some of the other songs."

Kiba sat up to listen to it. The music seemed kind of rave-y to him, but he liked it.

"Pikachu, love you too!" he sang, causing Naruto to start laughing.

"That's not what he's saying," Naruto told Kiba, still laughing.

"I know, it sounds like he is though," Kiba said.

A short while later, they stopped to get gasoline. Kiba handed Naruto his credit card before he got out, but Naruto refused to take it, instead just getting out and slamming the door shut. The he stuck out his tongue at Kiba through the glass.

"You didn't have to buy that," Kiba said when he got back in the car.

"Don't worry about it," Naruto said. "You can let people do things for you without them expecting anything back you know."

"I just get a kind of perverse pleasure spending my parents money on other people," Kiba said somewhat bitterly. "Although they never even see the bills. It just goes to an accountant's office to be blindly paid."

"It sounds kind of empty to me," Naruto said. "You seem to have some anger from your childhood, Kiba. If you don't want to be part of that, just let it go."

Kiba thoughtfully watched out the window for several miles, thinking about what his friend had just said.

"You're pretty smart, Naruto," he said quietly. "Do you know that?"

Naruto just looked at him and smiled. Then he fake-punched him in the jaw.

"I really do like your tattoos," he said.

"Thanks," Kiba said. "I like yours too."

They drove on for another two hours before Naruto took one of the exits from the highway. Naruto once again reluctant to bring up any issue with Kiba.

_He seems so happy today, I'll just let things be_ Naruto thought to himself.

A short drive later, Naruto pulled into the driveway of a two-story, white-sided house. It looked like any ordinary, nondescript American home. There was a small front yard with rose bushes planted along the front which had gone dormant for the winter, and a large cottonwood tree stood off to the side.

Akamaru had woken up and Kiba let him out of the car after he got out himself. Naruto went to the back of the car and opened the trunk to get the bags out. Once he had retrieved them, he led the way inside. The house was nicely furnished and many pictures hung on the walls. As the two boys came in, an elderly lady came from the other room. She was wearing and apron and had her hair in a bun at the top of her head. She rushed forward to hug her grandson Naruto.

Naruto introduced her to Kiba and then to Akamaru. She leaned down to pet the big dog, commenting on how long it had been since there was a dog in the house and how she missed having one around. A minute later an old man came out to the front room also. He had messy gray hair and was holding a pipe in his hand. He also hugged Naruto, and then Naruto introduced Kiba to his grandfather. Kiba thanked them both for allowing himself and Akamaru to spend the holiday with them.

After all the greetings were through, Naruto took Kiba upstairs so they could put down their bags and relax for a while after the drive. The upstairs consisted of a landing, one bedroom, and a small bathroom next to it. They went into the bedroom and Naruto sat his backpack down on one of the two single beds in the room.

"Here's my childhood room," he laughed as Kiba sat his own backpack on the other bed. "It's kind of weird to think of it that way now that I'm grown up. I was pretty happy here though."

"It's a pretty nice room," Kiba said as he walked around, looking at everything. He then lay down on one of the beds. "What's the plan for today?"

"Probably just hang out here," Naruto answered. "We can take Akamaru for a walk, and if you get bored, we can go drive around or something."

"Cool, a walk sounds nice. I probably won't be bored, so don't worry about that."

"All right, let's go out then."

They went back downstairs and Kiba hooked Akamaru to his lead as Naruto let his grandparents know they would be going out for a little bit to walk the dog.

They headed out into the cool afternoon. They sky had lightened some but was still overcast. As they walked along the streets of the little town, Naruto would point out various things he remembered from growing up. They turned down another side street that ran along some railroad tracks.

"I used to come out here when I was little," he said. "I'd ride my bike here with the other kids in the neighborhood and we'd wait for a freight train to come along and we'd put pennies on the tracks so the train would flatten them out."

"That sounds dangerous," Kiba said.

"We were just kids, we didn't know," Naruto laughed. "We used to walk down the tracks too. That was probably more dangerous."

They turned down another street and walked for several blocks, until they came upon some schools.

"Here's my elementary school," Naruto said. "I had first grade class in the room on the corner."

Kiba walked off the sidewalk and across the lawn to look into the window.

"The desks are so small," he said. "It's strange to think of being that small, I guess in my mind I feel like I've always been the same size."

"The high school is down this road," Naruto said, pointing. "And the Middle School is this way."

They turned down a gravel driveway that led in the opposite direction of the high school. There was a big, open field with a soccer field chalked out at one end and a baseball diamond at the opposite end.

They turned and walked past the school and through to parking lot to where the actual street started, going back onto the sidewalk.

"I used to walk home this way every day," Naruto said.

"This is a nice little town," Kiba said. "It seems very quiet and peaceful."

They headed back to Naruto's home and were greeted warmly by Naruto's grandparents again when they returned. They all sat in the living room with Naruto telling about how his classes were going and all manner of other things that intrigued the elderly couple.

After a short while, Naruto's grandmother left for the kitchen to prepare dinner, which, when they started smelling the food cooking, reminded the two how hungry they were.

After dinner, they sat watching tv for a while, and then Naruto wanted to go to sleep. Kiba also wanted to as he had been drowsing on the couch next to Naruto for the past hour. They went upstairs with Akamaru, whom Kiba had fed earlier and walked again briefly after dinner.

They went upstairs to Naruto's room again and he shut the door. They boys opened their backpacks and took out their clothes to sleep in and changed into them.

Naruto got into his bed under the blankets and then said "You can sleep over here if you want to."

Kiba thought for a moment and then climbed in bed with Naruto.

"Maybe there's not enough room," he said, as Akamaru jumped up on the bed also.

"It will just be cozy," Naruto said.

"Or we'll all just be paralyzed in the morning from sleeping in such a small space," Kiba said with a giggle.

Naruto had turned his back to the wall, and Kiba had his back to Naruto, who put his arms around him, resting his head on Kiba's shoulder.

**xXxXx**

The next morning, the two awoke to the heavenly smell of turkey roasting in the oven. Kiba was laying on his back, jammed into the small bed between Naruto and Akamaru. He attempted to free one of his arms from the tangled bedding.

"How late is it?" he asked Naruto, who was waking up now also.

"Oh not too late," he replied. "We always eat at noon on holidays."

"Ahhh, cool," Kiba said. "I suddenly starving."

"Good, cause there's going to be a ton of food," Naruto said. "We'll get a bunch to take back with us too."

"Yum..." Kiba said.

After lounging around another half hour, Kiba decided it would be best to get up and walk Akamaru before dinner. He went to take a shower in the bathroom next to the bedroom. After the shower, he made Naruto get up and shower while he changed. Then the two went for a quick walk and returned home.

At precisely 12:00 noon, everyone was called into the dining room. Kiba was amazed at what he saw: a large table laden with every imaginable Thanksgiving food possible. The large turkey had been carved and arranged on a platter and there also was mashed potatoes, gravy, baked squash, cranberries, rolls, sweet potatoes, and salad. Everyone sat down to eat all of the delicious food.

An hour later, Kiba and Naruto were collapsed on the couch in the living room, so full that they could barely move and practically falling asleep from having eaten so much. Naruto groaned, holding his stomach. A short while later there was a knock upon the door. Naruto and Kiba went into the front room so he could see who was at the door. Akamaru followed them and laid down at the first opportunity, having been fed by Naruto's grandmother also.

"Sasuke!" Naruto cried upon opening the door. "I didn't think I would see you today."

"Hey," Sasuke replied. "Yeah, I figured you'd probably be in town today so I thought I'd stop and check...nice car, is that yours?"

"No, it's my friend Kiba's," Naruto explained. "He came with me. Kiba, this is Sasuke. We grew up together."

"How do you do?" Kiba said standing up and eyeing the raven-haired boy somewhat suspiciously.

The three sat down, Naruto and Kiba on the couch and Sasuke in a chair angled off one end of the couch, and they sat talking for a while when the telephone rang. After a few minutes Naruto's grandmother called out to him that his cousin was on the phone and he wanted to speak with him.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," he said as he left the room.

After he was gone a moment, Sasuke leaned into Kiba and whispered:

"You know he's in love with me, right?"

Kiba's eyes dilated at this.

"Oh, I guess you didn't know," Sasuke continued. "He's always been in love with me...it's kind of annoying probably, since you're just a substitute. He liked giving me head when I'd let him, too..."

Kiba turned away as the color drained from his face and Akamaru sat up and growled at Sasuke.

"Tch," Sasuke snickered at the dog and sat back in his chair, smirking.

Naruto returned a short while later, and Sasuke stood up.

"Hey, I should get going," he said to Naruto. "I'm on my way to my family's dinner, just wanted to stop in and see if you were here."

"Ok, thanks for stopping," Naruto said. "See you."

"Later," Sasuke said, then added, as he was going out the door, "Nice to have met you, Kiba."

"I really wasn't expecting to see Sasuke," Naruto said. "He goes to school out of state, so I guessed he just wouldn't be in town."

"I don't feel well," Kiba said suddenly. "I think I might go lay down."

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, I just think I overate," Kiba lied. "I'll be fine, just need to rest a little bit...stay and visit your grandparents, I'm just going to lay down. Come on, Akamaru."

He quickly left the room before Naruto had a chance to even reply and nearly ran up the stairs, collapsing onto the bed that hadn't been slept in the previous night.

Kiba didn't come back down the rest of the day, and Naruto had gone up to check on him several times. Each time, Kiba just said he was not used to eating so much and other such excuses. Finally Naruto came up to go to bed. After he had changed, he got into his own bed.

"Do you want to come over here?" he asked Kiba.

"I think I'll stay here tonight," Kiba said. "I still feel a little off, and I don't want to keep you awake all night if I am tossing around."

"Ok," Naruto said disappointedly. "I hope you feel better in the morning."

He turned out the light after a couple minutes of waiting for a reply from Kiba which did not come.

The next morning, Kiba got up early and showered and then took Akamaru out for a walk. When he returned, Naruto was still asleep, so he got back into the other bed and laid down again, trying to fall back asleep. He didn't succeed and hear Naruto getting up a while later.

"Hey," Naruto whispered sitting down on the edge of the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"I was up a while ago and took a shower, but still feel a little unwell, so I laid back down."

"I'm sorry," Naruto said. "I wanted you to have a really nice time away from school and all."

"It's ok," Kiba said. "What time did you want to head back?"

"Let me go downstairs and talk to Grandma and Grandpa," he said. "I'll let them know you still aren't feeling well. You'd probably feel better in your own bed, huh?"

Kiba just nodded his head. Naruto got up to take a quick shower, and then went downstairs where breakfast was awaiting him.

About an hour later, he returned to his room to found Kiba still in bed.

"I'm going to go take our things out to the car," he said. "Do you need me to help you downstairs?"

"No, I'll be ok," Kiba answered. "Let me get my coat on and I'll be down in a minute."

Downstairs, Kiba said goodbye to Naruto's grandparents and thanked them for having him over for the delicious holiday meal and then he went out to the car with Akamaru.

They started driving back to the university. Naruto driving again and Kiba blankly starting out the window.

"Sasuke was my best friend growing up," Naruto said. "We were almost inseparable until sophomore year in high school. I was so stupid, I wanted to tell him a long time before that I was gay, but for some reason, I just couldn't. I admired him so much and we had been friends for so long, and I hadn't even been around anyone else before, so I kind of had a crush on him. Then one night when we were drunk, I told him I loved him. It was a disaster...he didn't talk to me for months afterwards, but then gradually felt more at ease. I should have just not said anything..."

Kiba didn't want to hear anything of what Naruto was saying. He stared blankly out the window, feeling as if his heart were breaking. Naruto took his hand.

"You still aren't feeling better are you?" he asked.

Kiba just shook his head, then at the first opportunity, took his hand back from Naruto's reach.

_"You really thought he liked you, didn't you?"_ Kiba's conscience cruelly said. _"I told you he didn't. Now what? You're going to retreat back into yourself like always and hide from the world. I suppose that's the best place for you though. No one will like you at all if they really know anything about you..."_


	10. Chapter 10

**Part X**

Kiba lay in bed Saturday morning. He had woke up before Naruto again, and was debating whether to try and slip out of Naruto's arms or to stay still so he wouldn't wake up.

_"He didn't tell you everything about Sasuke in the car yesterday."_ Kiba's conscious had been relentless for over 24 hours now. _"Why would you expect him to? You aren't the person he wants. He probably was hoping to get something from Sasuke, but you were in the way."_

_Why would he lie to me?_ Kiba thought. _Why wouldn't he tell me that he and Sasuke did things together?_

_"He doesn't want you to know!" _his conscious replied. _"You heard Sasuke, you're just a substitute, you don't mean anything...you've been told that your whole life, you ought to know by now."_

Kiba started to get up, but Naruto pulled him back. Kiba struggled a moment, then moved to the edge of the bed, where Akamaru was laying. He put his arms around the dog.

"Kiba, what's wrong?" Naruto asked. "I can tell something is, and you've barely looked at me since yesterday."

Kiba sat silently, his mind in turmoil.

"Please tell me," Naruto said. "Did I do something?

"Why didn't you tell me everything about Sasuke?" Kiba finally asked.

"I did tell you, yesterday," Naruto said after a moment's thought. "Or do you mean why hadn't I told you about him before? I guess I didn't think of it because it doesn't matter anymore. I just had a silly crush on him for a couple months."

"That's not really all though," Kiba said. "You didn't mention the things you did to him, when he would let you..."

"What do you mean?"

Kiba sat silent again, wondering if Naruto was playing a game with him now. He pressed his face into Akamaru's thick fur.

"He told me about how you gave him head, Naruto," Kiba said.

"What?" Naruto said in disbelief. "What are you talking about? Sasuke said that to you? We never did that. When I told him I thought I was in love with him, he wouldn't talk to me for months, how would I have done that?"

"That's what he said when he was at your grandparent's house when you had left the room to talk to your cousin on the telephone."

Naruto was becoming angry beyond reason now. He got out of the bed and was pacing around the room, clenching his fists. His face was becoming red from his anger.

"Why would he say that to you?" he asked. "It isn't true, I can tell you that much, Kiba."

"It seems strange to me...I don't know what to think."

Naruto went over to Kiba and made him look at him.

"Kiba, I swear to you nothing ever happened between me and Sasuke. It's ridiculous to me to even think about. I can't believe he would say that to you when he doesn't know anything about you. Now I understand why you've been withdrawn. You thought I was hiding that from you? There's nothing to hide because nothing ever happened."

Naruto kept pacing, then grabbed his cell phone thinking to call Sasuke, but then thought better of it. He threw it back down on the night stand.

"Kiba I'm really sorry he hurt you like that, and I don't understand why," Naruto said. "I'm going to find out though."

Kiba lay back on the bed, clinging to Akamaru as Naruto started to change his clothes. He picked up his phone again and sent a text message then turned to Kiba.

"Can I borrow your car?"

"I don't care..."

"Kiba, it's going to be all right, have some faith in me," Naruto said as he went out of the room, picked up Kiba's keys from the counter, and went out of the apartment.

As Naruto drove along the streets toward the highway, he was trying to sort out in his mind what possible purpose Sasuke had from telling Kiba something that was not true. He felt himself becoming more angry as he thought about it.

_Sasuke must actually hate me because of what I told him_ Naruto thought. _Well fuck him, I'm done after today so he won't have to worry about it anymore. I can't imagine how Kiba felt being told something like that...wait...was he..._

Naruto couldn't help but smile when that thought had clicked in his mind. He quickly sent another text message as he pulled out onto the highway.

**xXxXx**

Naruto had earlier sent a text message to Sasuke asking him if he could meet him at the park in a few hours, just to hang out. Sasuke had sent a message back that he would be there at the time Naruto had told him to be.

Naruto pulled up at the park before the Raven arrived. He was still pissed that Sasuke would hurt his friend in the manner he had. He had gotten out of Kiba's car and was sitting on one of the benches in the park waiting for Sasuke to show up.

About half an hour later Sasuke's car drive up at the curb next to Kiba's. He got out slowly and started walking toward Naruto. A sudden wave of new anger rose up in the blonde as he stood up off the bench and waited for Sasuke to get closer.

"Hey, Naruto, what's up," Sasuke began but was cut short by Naruto's fist slamming into his jaw, knocking him backwards and off balance. His hand immediately went to the spot where he had been struck and he jumped backwards.

"What the fuck!" he yelled at Naruto.

Naruto leapt forward, tackling the Raven as they both tumbled to the ground, sliding across the wet grass. Naruto scrambled on top of Sasuke pinning him down on his back.

"DON'T YOU EVER LIE ABOUT ME AGAIN," he screamed. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

For good measure he pulled his arm back and struck Sasuke again in the face.

"GET OFF ME, ASSHOLE," Sasuke yelled, throwing Naruto off him and grappling to hold back his arms. Sasuke punched Naruto in the stomach, making him move aside slightly, enough for the Raven to scramble to his feet again and took a swing at Naruto. Naruto saw it coming and started to move, but not fast enough. The fist connected along his cheekbone as he moved his head back.

"Why the hell did you say that to Kiba the other day?" Naruto demanded. "You don't know shit about him and you say something like that? What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Sasuke charged at Naruto, grabbing him and swinging again, Naruto swung at Sasuke again also as they tumbled back down to the ground, each one viciously striking and grasping at the other.

"If you fucking hate me, don't take it out on my friends," Naruto said, hitting Sasuke again and breaking his lip open. He hesitated a moment at the sight of Sasuke's blood, giving Sasuke the opportunity to slam his fist into Naruto's face. Naruto fell backwards, laying in the grass on his back. Sasuke quickly got up and kicked him in his ribs.

"I don't hate you, Naruto," he said.

Both of the boys stared at each other, both bleeding, covered in dirt, and their clothes torn. They faced each other a few minutes longer.

"I don't hate you," Sasuke repeated.

"Why did you do that then?" Naruto asked as Sasuke sat down next to him in the grass.

"I never told you this before...I didn't know how," Sasuke began. "When you told me you were in love with me, it made me feel like shit, but not because I was freaked out or anything. I knew I couldn't give you what you wanted though, so I tried to stop being friends with you so you wouldn't have to deal with liking me that way. I thought it would be easier for you, but you were so persistent and kept talking to me, calling, and emailing. I gave in a little. I realize now how stupid that was and that we should have remained friends all along like how we used to be. I was a fucking idiot."

"Sasuke," Naruto said after a couple minutes. "I never expected or wanted you to be anything but yourself. I knew we weren't going to be together, I always knew that. I just told you because we had shared everything else we were going through growing up. It was just a dumb crush anyway, it started to go away once I told you about it."

"I'm sorry I said that to your friend," Sasuke said. "I don't even know why I did it, maybe I wanted to make sure he was good enough for you. It sounds like he is maybe?"

"Yeah, he's worth a hundred of you," Naruto joked, causing Sasuke to laugh lightly.

"Good, I'm glad you found someone, you know, since you're such a loser," Sasuke said. "Do you think we can get back to being as good of friends as we used to be?"

"Yeah, I think so," Naruto said. "You'll just have to stop being such a bastard all the time."

"Please tell Kiba I'm sorry," Sasuke said, looking down at the ground. "I didn't mean to hurt him, and I'll make up for it somehow, maybe if you let me come visit you at school sometime."

"I'll tell him," Naruto said. "How are your classes going this semester?"

"Not bad," Sasuke replied. "It's a lot of work, but I'm managing to get by all right. How are yours going? Are you liking your new school now that you've transferred?"

"Yeah, I like it a lot," replied Naruto. "My classes are great, my roommates in the door are super cool, and I met Kiba...Sasuke, I think I really like him."

"That's really cool," Sasuke said. "I haven't found anyone to hold my interest yet beyond a few dates. But, there certainly isn't a lack of choice at my school."

"Good for you then," Naruto said. "Keep your options open."

Sasuke glanced over at his friend.

"You look like shit, man," he said, smirking.

"Ha, you look worse."

"Probably," Sasuke said. "This is going to hurt like hell later. Are you hungry? Do you want to go get something to eat and hang out some more? I kind of miss us just hanging out."

"I really would like to," Naruto said. "But right now, there's someone I need to get back to, and he's three hours away. I'll call you, and we'll figure out when you can come visit. I miss hanging out with you too."

"Thanks," Sasuke said. "I guess I'm glad I stopped by to see you on Thanksgiving, even if I was a bastard while I was there...at least we're talking again."

"Yeah," Naruto said getting up and offering his hand to Sasuke to pull him up from where he sat on the ground. As he did, he kept pulling the Raven toward him and hugged him. "You better just watch out when you meet Kiba again though. He may kick your ass too."

"I'll let him," he replied as Naruto sprinted over to Kiba's car. "Later, bastard!"

"Later, loser," Sasuke called to him, watching as he drove off out of the park.

**xXxXx**

Kiba had fallen back asleep a couple hours after Naruto had left. He had been unsure what Naruto was going to accomplish, but he hadn't the energy to think about it too much. He had pulled Akamaru closer to him and had eventually drifted off to sleep.

When he woke up again, he sensed that Naruto had not yet returned and reached for his phone, which was laying on the nightstand. He unlocked the screen and saw a text message had come from Naruto a while after he left. He went to the text screen and started at it a long while, not sure he believed what he was seeing.

**btw, i love you.**

"Naruto...loves me?" Kiba said aloud to himself, laying back down and still staring at the message.

A short while later, he heard the key in the lock and the apartment door open. Naruto appeared in the room a moment later. He went straight to the bed and climbed onto it, lifting Kiba up in his arms and kissing his mouth, softly at first then more insistently. Kiba resisted slightly, then gave in and kissed Naruto back, wrapping his arms around the blonde.

"What happened to you?" Kiba said, once Naruto had released him. Kiba was alarmed by the dirt smeared across Naruto's face and the bruise on his cheek and the black eye he had.

"We beat the shit out of each other," Naruto said. "But I understand him better now."

He lay down next to Kiba and relayed everything the two had talked about. Then he turned on his side and kissed Kiba again.

"I'm going to take care of you from now on," he said. Kiba smiled and ran his hand through the blonde hair.

"From the look of you," Kiba said. "I'm going to have to take care of you."


	11. Chapter 11

**Part XI**

Kiba and Naruto had stayed in bed the rest of the afternoon, making out with each other and talking. Kiba understood that Naruto wanted him to be his boyfriend, and he had the text Naruto had sent him telling him that he loved him. He realized that he loved Naruto also, maybe since the moment Naruto had kept Kiba from harm on the first day they had met. Kiba felt unbearably happy in Naruto's strong arms, lying with him in his sunny bedroom.

"Kiba," Naruto said. "I didn't really mean to tell you I loved you for the first time by text message. It just kind of turned out that way."

"I think it's kind of cool," Kiba said.

"I also want you to know," Naruto continued. "Whatever is bothering you, I want you to tell me. Don't shut me out anymore, like you did Thursday. If you had told me what Sasuke said, I could have told you it wasn't true then. You wouldn't have been tormenting yourself about it."

"I know," Kiba said, he felt terrible about making Naruto worry about him, but it was his self-protection mechanism. He had been hurt before, and keeping things far away meant they would be less likely to hurt him. He looked up at Naruto's blue eyes, loving how warm and beautiful they were. "I'll try, Naruto. I'm different than other people. I don't think the same way...but it's because things made me this way...even telling you this right now is making me feel so vulnerable."

"I want to help you. When you're ready, I believe you'll tell me."

Kiba hugged Naruto in response to his kindness and gentleness. Kiba wondered if Naruto might really be able to understand him after all despite all his own doubts.

"I guess I can't completely fault you for keeping things to yourself anyway," Naruto went on. "I really wanted to tell you how I felt, but I couldn't do it. I tried a lot of times, but I was worried because I thought I had fucked up mine and Sasuke's friendship by telling him I loved him. I didn't want things to become awkward between us."

"It's funny in a way," Kiba said. "Both of us were afraid of what the other's reaction would be, and for a long time I thought you didn't like guys...Really, we should have just started going out that first day."

Naruto laughed and ran his hand through Kiba's shaggy brown hair, gazing into his deep brown eyes. He traced a finger over one of Kiba's eyebrows.

"You're so cute," he said. "Are you getting hungry? We have all that food that my Grandma sent back with us yesterday."

"Gah!" Kiba exclaimed. "I'd forgotten we were supposed to bring some back with us, and I didn't see you put it into the car."

"That's because you were too preoccupied with sulking," Naruto teased.

"I was pensive!" Kiba said. "Not sulky."

"Whatever," Naruto said as he got up and pulled his boyfriend out of the bed too so they could go eat.

**xXxXx**

It was now the first full week of December. The last week of the semester and the week of final exams. In order to celebrate the end of the semester, Kiba had asked Naruto to invite everyone over to his apartment to hang out. Kiba's last exam was for his Ancient Civilizations class on Friday, so Naruto was staying in his dorm until after it was over to allow Kiba to study. Naruto's last exam was his Geology one, which was today, Thursday. The two boys were sitting together in the Amory Hall student lounge before Naruto's exam. They had ate lunch together earlier.

"Sakura is going to be here Friday for our party," Kiba said after he checked his email on his phone. "She had her last exam this morning and is going to drive here tomorrow afternoon, remember you saw her for about ten seconds that day I saw you and Shino at the mall an age ago?"

"Yeah, that will be fun," Naruto said. "Shino is done with his exams already. His last one was yesterday, and Shikamaru has one tomorrow morning, like you do. Then we're all done."

"I can't wait," Kiba said. "But at the same time, it seems like the semester went so fast."

"I know what you mean," Naruto agreed. "It seems like classes just started a couple weeks ago. I'm going to have to start looking for a summer job soon, since I won't be taking classes over summer."

"No!" Kiba said. "Naruto, I want you to stay with me."

"Kiba, I can't do that. I told you that before, it doesn't feel right to me. That's not why I love you."

"I know, but it's there. Why can't you benefit from it too?"

"Let's not talk about that right now," Naruto said. "We'll figure something out though. Don't worry."

They sat and talked a while longer, until Naruto had to go to his exam. Kiba wished him luck and then walked back to his apartment to study some more for tomorrow.

**xXxXx**

Friday arrived and Kiba went to his exam, ending his semester. He felt like he had done relatively well on the exam. At least he seemed to not have too much indecision about any of the answers he wrote down, which was always a good sign. Naruto was waiting for him in Amory Hall. He had packed several nights worth of clothes, stuffing them all into his backpack so that it looked like it would explode at any moment.

"Well, how did you do?" he asked as Kiba sat down next to him on the overstuffed couch in the lounge.

"Ohhhhhh, Egyptians, Sumerians, Greeks, Celts, Romans..." Kiba said. "I think I did all right. And I enjoyed the class, so that was a plus."

"Good, I'm glad."

"We're free for the next five weeks!" Kiba said with a sign of relief. "Oh, I forgot to ask you the other day; do you have a passport?"

"Hmmm, no, why?" Naruto asked. "I haven't been out of the country."

"I just wondered," Kiba said evasively. "What time are Shikamaru and Shino supposed to come over?"

"I told them around 5:00. Will that be OK?"

"Yeah, that's perfect. Sakura said she was going to leave at 1:00, so she would get here about 3:00. We should go to the market and buy all our weekend supplies. What do you think we should have tonight? We could make pizzas. I mean, really make them, the dough and sauce...it would be fun."

"Hmmm, I've never actually made pizza from scratch," Naruto said. "I think you're right, that would be fun."

"Yeah! We'll need to get almost everything though, but that won't be a problem. There will be five of us, so we'll need to make sure we won't run out of anything. I'd be happy with just cheese and pepperoni, but we should get a lot of different toppings."

"All right, you're the cook, so I'll let you decide what we need," Naruto said.

"K...let's go walk Akamaru and I'll make a list. Then we can take the car to the market."

They left the campus and walked back to Kiba's apartment. They headed up the outside stairs to the second floor apartment and heard a bark of recognition from Akamaru. Kiba unlocked the door and they went inside.

"Come here," Naruto said, pulling Kiba to him and hugging him. He kissed him softly. "I don't think it would hurt if we wait to go to the market for a little while, will it?"

"Mmmm," Kiba mused. "I don't know. It depends on what you want to do."

"That required me showing you...in the bedroom."

"We'll be back in ten minutes, Akamaru," Kiba said to the dog, who was sitting by the door wagging his tail.

"Better make it twenty, Akamaru," Naruto said, pulling Kiba into the bedroom and shutting the door.

Naruto kissed Kiba again, and Kiba began pulling off Naruto's sweater and tshirt over his head. He ran his hands over the blonde boys chest, feeling his chest and stomach muscles. He bent down, kissing Narutos shoulder, and throat, then down further to his nipple, gently biting at it. Shivers ran through Naruto's body and he pulled Kiba back up to kiss him again. Kiba pulled him over to the bed and they laid down together. Kiba crawled over top of Naruto, kissing his stomach and running his tongue over the blonde's ab muscles. He unbuttoned Naruto jeans and unzipped them, pulling them off along with his boxers. At the same time, Naruto reached out and pulled off the red sweater Kiba was wearing.

"Come here," he said, his voice becoming throaty from becoming aroused.

Kiba crawled back up to him and kissed him, pushing his tongue into Naruto's mouth. Naruto's hands were running over Kiba's back, sides, and chest, giving him spasms of pleasure. Naruto's hands found Kiba's pierced nipples and gently pulled at the silver rings. Kiba was lost in the erotic sensations Naruto was causing in him. He lay down on his side, and pulled Naruto onto his side also, so they were facing each other. Naruto was grinding his naked body against Kiba's hips, rubbing his erection against the material of Kiba's black cargo pants. Kiba's own erection strained against the pants and the silk boxers he wore underneath. He reached down and pulled them off, kicking them off the end of the bed.

The two kissed again, and then Naruto turned himself around, placing his hands on Kiba's hips, kissing his hard shaft, and positioning his own member conveniently within line of Kiba's mouth. Kiba took Naruto into his mouth, sucking gently on the head, and running his tongue over it. Naruto groaned in pleasure as he began sucking Kiba also, moving his head up and down over and over.

"Suck my dick, Kiba," Naruto said. "You're so fucking good."

Kiba took the full seven inches of his boyfriend into his throat, continuing to go down until his face hit against Naruto's abdomen and the neatly trimmed patch of thick, blonde hair. With his other hand, Kiba reached down to rub Naruto's balls, causing the blonde to groan even harder and the pleasure he was receiving.

Kiba felt Naruto's mouth going up and down his own shaft now, softly biting at the sensitive flesh. Naruto's tongues traced down the full underside of Kiba's dick, then moved further down to Kiba's large balls, teasing them with his tongue while his hand rubbed the spot of Kiba's abdomen just above the base of his shaft. Kiba kept his dark hair trimmed very short and his balls completely shaved, and Naruto had quickly learned he could drive his boyfriend wild by rubbing him there, causing friction from the short hairs against the palm of his hand. Often, Kiba would nearly cum just from Naruto doing this. He moaned deeply now, his hips jerking forward to feel the exploring hand more fully against his body.

Kiba reached down and guided his eight and a half inches back into Naruto's mouth and began pumping in and out as Naruto braced his hands against Kiba's hip bones. At the same time, Naruto began thrusting more forcefully into Kiba's mouth. They both kept their rhythm going until they were about to release. Naruto crying out first, thrusting himself deeply down Kiba's hot throat, and releasing his semen, which Kiba swallowed, enjoying the sweet flavor. A moment later, as he was still sucking the last drops from Naruto, he started cumming in the blonde's mouth, continuing the movement in and out of his mouth. Kiba always shot a huge load, usually more than Naruto could take all at once, and today was no different. The white fluid flowed over Naruto's lips and onto his chin as he licked as much as he could from Kiba's dick.

Kiba sat up and leaned over to kiss Naruto, tasting himself on his lips.

"I love you so fucking much, Kiba," Naruto said. "That was awesome."

"I love you too, Naruto," Kiba said, laying down and resting his head on Naruto's shoulder. "I love being with you, and I love just laying with you afterwards."

Naruto picked up his phone to check the time.

"Shit!" he said. "It's 1:00 almost."

"Akamaru is going to be so pissed," Kiba said getting up and pulling on his boxers.

He grabbed a pair of purple gym shorts out of his dresser and pulled them on, then snatched up his sweater, putting it on inside out. "I look like a fucking idiot," he said running out of the room so he could walk his dog.

Akamaru was laying in front of the door and wouldn't turn around when Kiba came up behind him. He only moved when Kiba had the door fully open and then he charged past his master and down the stairs without waiting for him. Naruto laughed from the hallway, where he stood in just his boxers, watching the scene unfold.

"I've never seen such a prudent dog before," Naruto said, still laughing.

"I told you he was like that before we ever did anything, and you've seen it before!" Kiba said in exasperation. "I don't know what to do. I'll probably have to feed him a steak or something to get him to calm down."

After Akamaru returned he went out to the sunroom and laid down among the plants, and Kiba thought it best to just let him be for now. He would buy him something at the market to show him he was still loved.

The two lovers changed back into their normal clothes and went to the market to get the provisions for their party. Kiba made sure to get plenty of provisions for his home bar too, since he wanted to make sure everyone had a good, carefree time for the end of the semester.

Sakura arrived around 3:30, and she raced up to the apartment, excited that she would get to properly meet Kiba's new boyfriend for the first time. She gave Kiba a big hug and whispered in his ear how glad she was that it worked out since the last she knew was when Kiba had still thought Naruto was straight. Kiba had called her after Thanksgiving holiday to fill her in, and she was very pleased at how things had turned out.

A little while later, Kiba was sitting with her on the couch in the living room listening to her relating how her exams had gone when an idea suddenly struck him.

"Naruto," he said. "I don't know why we didn't think of this earlier, but why don't you take the car to pick up Shino and Shikamaru. Then they don't have to walk or look for somewhere to park on the street because Sakura is in my visitor parking spot."

"That would be a lot easier," Naruto agreed. "I'll go get them."

Once he had left, Kiba was practically cornered by Sakura, who implored him to disclose the most intimate details of how things were going with Naruto.

"Sakura," Kiba said. "I don't know how you do it, but you make me tell things that I never thought would ever come out of my mouth."

"Oh, it's because we've known each other for so long," she said with a giggle. "Now, you look almost like a new Kiba...I'm so happy that you guys are together. I can tell how much you like each other just watching you guys interact."

"Thanks," Kiba said. "Sometimes I get so scared though, you know? Because of how he is, so understanding. I think sometimes that it's just a dream. You know how I am, probably better than anyone."

"You're probably right," she answered. "But pretty soon your boyfriend will know you even better I hope. You're such a sweet person Kiba, and I don't know what really happened before to make you fearful of being happy, but you really deserve to be. Don't forget that and don't let that part of you get the better of you."

"I know," Kiba said. "I try not to, but it's just there all the time, kind of lurking."

Naruto returned a little while later with his roommates. Kiba introduced them to Sakura and they all sat around for a while talking about their exams while Kiba kept supplying everyone with drinks. Akamaru had livened up a bit too with so many visitors, and Kiba had bought him some chicken livers, which he had fried and fed him for dinner.

After an hour or so, Kiba had everyone come into the kitchen so they could all help make the pizza dough which proved to be highly amusing as everyone was well on there way to getting a little drunk thanks to Kiba's bartending. The sauce had been started earlier and was simmering away lightly on the stove. Kiba let the others wrestle around with the dough while he cut up red onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, and ham slices. He also set out green olives, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, and bacon that had been cooked earlier and crumbled. He had Sakura come and help him with putting everything out on plates on the dining table since the boys were becoming slightly unruly with the making of the dough, trying to throw it in the air to stretch it, but usually not being very successful.

Kiba turned on the oven to let his pizza stone heat up and checked the sauce. It was done and tasted very savory when he tried a spoonful. He then corralled the guys into settling down enough to make their pizzas. Each of them took one of the small doughs that had been divided up earlier and began assembling their dinner. Once Sakua, Shino, and Shikamaru had their's ready, Kiba pulled the pizza stone from the oven and put the three on it.

"You need to keep an eye on them," he said. "I don't know exactly how long it will take to cook and I won't be held responsible for any disasters."

"Oh man, I don't remember signing any waivers when I came in the door," Shikamaru said. "How troublesome."

"Yours is going to burn to ash, Shikamaru!" Naruto yelled at him drunkenly. "You better watch it good!"

Despite his protestations, Shikamaru laughed at Naruto's teasing. Kiba continued to give everyone drinks while their pizzas were cooking. Shino and Sakura were the only ones who had really taken heed of Kiba's warning to watch the pizzas. After about 20 minutes, they both had bent down to look into the oven window at the same time, and slightly hit their heads together.

"Pardon me!" Shino said. chuckling, then couldn't control himself and said with an extremely serious expression on his face. "Have you ever seen a goliath beetle? Because I've got one in my pants..."

Naruto, who was standing next to him and overheard, spit his drink out at the sink because he started laughing uncontrollably.

"YOU PERVERT!" Sakura screamed in a high-pitched falsetto voice, pretending to be offended, then she dashed behind Shikamaru. "Hide me, Shikamaru!"

"Ugh," Shikamaru groaned, "No one wants to see your crabs, Aburame."

Naruto was heard spitting his drink again with more uncontrolled laughter coming forth from his mouth. Kiba also was now laughing out loud.

"Good one, Nara," Shino said, chuckling again, then suddenly went back to his serious expression. "I don't have crabs, just for the record."

By then, the first set of pizzas were done and removed from the oven with Naruto's and Kiba's going in next.

Everyone settled down to eat now and they all sat in a circle on the living room floor. Kiba was feeling very warm and fuzzy from the alcohol and the fun they were all having together. He got up a little bit later to gather up everyone's plates and take them out into the kitchen. Shikamaru followed him and pulled him aside to the very back of the kitchen.

"Uhhh," he started, clenching his eyes shut and pressing his fingers to his brown as if concentrating very hard on something. "Your friend Sakura..."

"Yes?" Kiba asked.

"Uhhhh," he started to speak again. "This is such a bother...Is your friend Sakura dating anyone?"

"Oh!" Kiba said in surprise. "No, not at the moment."

"I see," Shikamaru said, smiling slightly but looking only minutely less pained.

"Why?"

"You're going to make me say it?"

No, I won't," Kiba said, laughing. "I'll find out what she thinks of you though, very discreetly of course."

"Really?" Shikamaru said. "That would be cool. Please don't tell anyone though...I mean, you can tell Naruto if you can get him to keep it quiet, since he's your boyfriend."

"Don't worry," Kiba said grinning. "I have ways of making Naruto comply with my wishes.

The two went back out to the living room and Kiba surreptitiously sent Naruto a text:

**DO NOT SAY ANYTHING OR LET ON ABOUT THIS! (or else!) shikamaru is interested in sakura! :D **

**WHAT?!**

**He just told me in the kitchen and wants me to find out whta she thinks of him ;)**

**Cool, let me know what she says.**

It was starting to get late and Kiba thought it was about time for Akamaru to go out again. He went to the door and called the dog over. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see about three inches of snow had fallen and it was coming down heavily still.

"SNOW!" he called out, causing everyone to look over.

"Oh, wow," Naruto said. "That storm was supposed to stay far south of us. I wonder if it is going to keep up all night?"

"Let's all go for a walk in the snow! Akamaru will like that," Kiba said. "Everyone needs to take a shot of vodka first. Then if you fall asleep in a snowbank, your blood won't freeze."

They all took shots and then went out in the snow, throwing snowballs at each other occasionally or other such mischief. It was getting really cold however, so they didn't stay out too long, and upon returning to the apartment, everyone seemed ready to sleep. Kiba and Naruto went to the bedroom to change, while Sakura changed in the bathroom. She and Kiba would be staying in the bedroom tonight, leaving Naruto, Shino, and Shikamaru to stay on the living room floor, so that Sakura would be spared any torment that might have befallen her.

As they lay there, Kiba was enjoying the fun of the evening still and asked Sakura if she had a nice time.

"It was really fun, Kiba," she said. "Naruto is awesome, but we talked about all that before. His roommates are cool too. Thanks so much for asking me to come over!"

"Isn't Shikamaru sexy," Kiba said, not having to lie because he did think Naruto's roommate was hot, although not as hot as Naruto was to him.

"He is, actually, very much," Sakura said. "I was thinking of that earlier. He seems very intelligent and like he is always thinking and kind of mysterious at the same time. I don't think there's much fluff about him. I like that."

"Yeah, Shino is cute too," Kiba said. "He's really a nice guy, but likes to say crazy things. They're both single too."

"He was funny tonight," she admitted. "I couldn't believe he said that to me! It was hilarious! Interesting that they aren't with anyone. They both seem really sweet."

"I'm glad you came too, by the way," Kiba said. "I wish we could hang out more."

"Me too, but we have to get through school too."

"Don't take this the wrong way," Kiba said suddenly. "I'm kind of getting used to sleeping next to Naruto. Would it be awful if I went to sleep in the living room too?"

"Oh, gosh, no!" Sakura exclaimed. "Go out to him, that's awesome. I'm about to pass out anyway. I'll see you in the morning."

"Thanks! See you in the morning."

Kiba crept out of bed and went out into the living room and knelt down next to his boyfriend.

"Naruto, I can't stay away from you!" he said. "Hahaha, I'm so lame. I need to talk to Shikamaru a minute thought, then I'll be back."

Kiba then went over and lay down next to Shikamaru, laying his head on the boy's shoulder so he could whisper in his ear.

"She thinks your hot, dude. And she likes that you are really smart and that you think a lot."

"That's great," Shikamaru whispered back. Thank you, Kiba. I really appreciate you helping me."

"No problem, anytime. Can I give her your number later?"

"Yeah, definitely...thanks!"

"K...I'm going back to Naruto then, bye-bye."

"Good night."

Kiba snuggled up to his boyfriend and Akamaru laid down next to him, on the other side, so that he was kept warm all night by the two beings who mattered most to him in the whole world.


	12. Chapter 12

**Part XII**

"Kiba, you probably should go home, at least for Christmas," Naruto said.

"I'm not going home," Kiba replied absently. "I've told you before. I'm going with you."

It was now the second week of the university's Winter break, and one week from Christmas. Naruto was planning to go back to his grandparent's on the coming Friday and staying through Christmas.

"But you haven't even called anyone," Naruto continued.

"Glarg," Kiba said. "Ok, I'll call now."

The two were still laying in bed, having not yet gotten up that morning. Kiba leaned across his boyfriend to retrieve his phone from the nightstand, leaning down further than necessary to lightly bite Naruto in the side as he grabbed the phone. Naruto jumped, startled from the unexpected touch of his lover's teeth. Kiba put his index finger to his lips.

"Shhhh," he said to Naruto as he hit the appropriate contact icon for his mother. As he listened to the rings, he began absently tracing circles over Naruto's naked stomach. "Hello, it's your son, Kiba."

"Well, I know that," his mother replied. "I saw it on the ID."

"I'm not coming back during break. I'm going to a friend's house for the holidays."

"Really, Kiba? A friend?" was the sarcastic reply. "Are you just staying at your apartment so you don't have to come home?"

Kiba didn't reply.

"I don't know why you can't come home for a few days..."

"Are we all set?" Kiba interrupted. "I've already made other plans."

With a flick of his thumb, Kiba ended the call, tossing his phone down next to him on the bed. Naruto giggled nervously.

"That sounded like it went well," the blonde said.

"Come here, you," Kiba said, rolling over onto his boyfriend and gazing down into the deep blue eyes. He leaned down and kissed Naruto. "Make me forget about the world..."

**xXxXx**

Thursday came along without too much hast. The two boys had been enjoying the laziness of the break from classes. Sometimes not even getting dressed or going out of the apartment except to take out Akamaru. Much of the time was spent reading or watching movies.

That evening, Kiba was lounging on the floor next to the couch, upon which Naruto was laying, reading the copy of _The Monk_ that Kiba had given him for his birthday.

"What part are you at now?" Kiba asked as he absently stroked Akamaru's paw.

"The Bloody Nun," Naruto answered, glancing down and smiling at how comfortable Kiba looked with his dog.

"I can't wait for you to get to the end!" Kiba enthused. "The best part is when the enraged mob literally tears the Prioress to shreds!"

"I know," Naruto said, laughing. "You told me about twenty times now. That would be so horrible to die like that..."

"She shouldn't have been so inhuman," Kiba said. "Maybe they wouldn't have done it then."

Naruto chuckled again at his boyfriend's enthusiasm for one of the most gruesome parts of the story. He closed the book and set it on the end table next to the couch.

"Kiba," he said as he reached down to run his fingers through the boy's thick, brown hair. "I want to give you your present now...is it all right if it's early?"

"Only if you take yours early too," Kiba answered.

Naruto leapt up from the couch and went to the bedroom, rummaging around through his bags. He emerged a moment later with a small wrapped package with a red bow on it. He handed it to Kiba.

"I had a really hard time keeping this hidden, you know," he said, "since it's your apartment and all."

Kiba laughed and told Naruto to wait while he went and retrieved the present he had gotten for Naruto. He returned with a wrapped box and a plain envelope and handed them to Naruto.

"Open yours first," Naruto said.

Kiba pulled the bow off and tore the wrapping paper from the black box. He lifted the lid off and found a black velvet pouch inside.

"Hmmm," he said. "This looks like a tobacco pouch. Do you want me to start smoking?"

"Just open it!" Naruto said.

Inside the velvet pouch, Kiba found a bracelet with alternating beads of black onyx and white calcite beads. A sterling claps held the two ends together.

"Thank you, Naruto!" Kiba exclaimed. "I love it!"

"You're welcome," Naruto said as he helped put the bracelet on Kiba's wrist. "And I love you."

"I love you too," Kiba said and gave his boyfriend a quick hug. "Now open yours, the box first!"

Naruto pulled the ribbon from the package and carefully opened the wrapping paper in a slow manner. He pulled the box from it's sheath of paper and put it on the floor to pull off the lid. Inside were three button-down shirts, neatly folded and arranged in the box: one black, one orange, and one white.

"Oh!" Naruto said as he pulled them out one by one. "I'm going to wear these for the next three days! Kiba, they are great, thanks very much."

"Don't forget about the envelope," Kiba reminded him.

"Oh, that's right," Naruto said picking up the envelop and opening it. He pulled out several sheets of paper and looked at them. It was an application for a US passport.

"This is kind of a strange gift," he said as Kiba giggled a little at the confused look on the blonde's face.

"This is very serious, Naruto," he said, but couldn't help from grinning. "I've thought about this a lot for the past month, and I want us to take a long vacation this summer. Please let me do this for you."

"Kiba," Naruto said. "That will cost a lot of money."

"I knew you'd say that," Kiba said. "I know you don't like it when I spend money on you excessively, but this is something I really want to do for both of us. I'm really being selfish in a way because I really just want to be with you someplace where absolutely no one else can intrude. Please let me just do this, for both of us. And it will be so nice to spend the time idly before the Autumn semester starts."

"I don't know..." Naruto said. "Where would we go?"

"Italy," he said, "but that's all the information you get now, because I want it to be a surprise. Will you give in and go along?"

"I can tell how much you would like to do this," Naruto answered. "So, OK, I won't try to derail your plans. Thank you so much, it's so nice of you to plan a vacation for us."

"Thank you!" Kiba cried thinking he would have had more of a fight to convince Naruto to go with him. "I love you more than you'll ever know!"

"I love you," Naruto said, kissing Kiba softly. "I've got another gift that I wanted to keep hidden until the absolute last minute. I'll be right back."

He came back a few minutes later with an oddly shaped parcel of wrapping paper. Akamaru instantly jumped up and started wagging his tail.

"How does he know?!" Naruto cried. "I got this for him and thought I had kept it completely hidden!"

"I don't know," Kiba said with a sigh. "He's an odd dog, sometimes I think he's human."

Naruto tossed the parcel to Akamaru who caught it from the air and trotted over and set it down in front of the fireplace. He looked up at the two boys and barked.

"Get it, boy!" Naruto said. "It's your present."

Akamaru barked again before pouncing on the present and tearing at the paper with his teeth and paws. A couple minutes later he had torn the paper off enough to pull out the stuffed octopus inside, and it was only seconds after that that he found the squeaker inside and began biting it to hear the noise over and over. Then he looked at Naruto and barked again, tossing the toy into the air and catching it and then settling down in front of the fireplace with his new possession.

"That was nice of you," Kiba said. "I can tell he likes it a lot."

"Yeah, I didn't want to forget him," Naruto said.

"What time do you want to leave tomorrow?"

"Probably around 8:00, if that's not too early."

"OK, I should be able to manage."

**xXxXx**

The drive back to Naruto's home was uneventful as usual except for halfway when it started snowing again. The temperature was above freezing though, so the roads stayed clear, and they arrived a little after 11:00.

All the usual greetings had taken place and Naruto and Kiba had gone upstairs to Naruto's room to unpack and rest for a while. Kiba was enjoying being with his boyfriend and sharing the holidays with him. The whole house was decorated. There was a large tree in the front room, an evergreen garland had been wound around the bannister of the stairs, and various other decorations had been placed throughout the house. Kiba loved the scent of the evergreens, and it reminded him of being in the woods.

The two were laying together on Naruto's bed. Kiba was half falling asleep and Naruto was busy sending and receiving text messages.

"Ummm," the blonde said, "Sasuke wants to know if you will meet him so he can apologize to you in person."

"I'm not sure..." Kiba said.

"He's really a nice guy," Naruto said. "Don't worry about it, just talk to him. He really is sorry, and it would be nice if we could all be friends. I have known him for my entire life you know."

"OK," Kiba relented as he looked back at his boyfriend. "How bad can it be? You'll be there anyway."

"Ummm," Naruto said suddenly looking anywhere except directly at Kiba. "He want to go with you alone..."

"Ugh...seriously?" Kiba groaned. "Why?"

"I'm sure he's embarrassed about the whole things," Naruto said. "Just meet him and talk to him. I'd really appreciate it."

"Gahhhh," sighed Kiba. "When and where?"

"He wants to take you to lunch tomorrow, at the little tavern uptown. It's really good. They have awesome hamburgers."

**xXxXx**

The next morning, Kiba woke up kind of dreading his meeting with Sasuke. He didn't really believe that the Raven was going to do anything like last time, it was just that meeting new people put Kiba on edge. He wanted to do this for Naruto though, so he would just have to deal with it. At 11:30, Sasuke arrived to pick him up. Naruto hugged him and kissed him.

"There but for the grace of God go I," Kiba said. Naruto laughed and pushed him out the door.

"You'll be fine," he said. "And have fun!"

Kiba got into the passenger seat of Sasuke's blue WRX STI. He felt slightly awkward, but knew it had to be worse for the other boy.

"Hey," Sasuke said, backing the car out of the driveway and onto the street.

"Hey" said Kiba.

"I'm really sorry for how I acted last time I met you and for what I said to you. It was a stupid, ignorant thing to do. I'm sorry, and I hope you forgive me and we can be friends."

"It's ok," Kiba said. "I forgave you when Naruto told me what you had said to him when he met you that Saturday."

"That's cool," Sasuke said. "I'm glad."

They pulled up to the tavern a few minutes after leaving from Naruto's house and went inside. It was very dimly lit and looked to Kiba like it had not been thoroughly cleaned in ages. There was a row of tables lined up down the middle of the large, open room, and booths along the one side and back wall. On the opposite side was a long bar. In another room, there were pool tables. The two sat down at one of the booths in the back.

"This place looks pretty shady, but the food is great," Sasuke said. "Naruto and I used to skip class in middle school and high school to come eat here sometimes."

"Yeah, it looks a little janky," Kiba said as he looked over the menu that had been placed in front of him by a haggard looking waitress along with a glass of water.

Sasuke didn't bother to look at his menu, but sipped his water waiting for Kiba to decide.

"What are you studying in school?" he asked, causing Kiba to look up as if he had been startled.

"Oh, something to do with literature," he answered. "And a history minor. I haven't picked a major yet for certain."

"That's cool," the Raven replied. "You and Naruto probably have quite a bit in common then. Every time I used to show up at his place when we were little, his nose would be stuck in a book. I just never really got into it too much."

"Yeah, we're always talking about books and writers. What's your major?"

"I'm going into geothermal engineering."

"Dude, that sounds terrifying," Kiba said making Sasuke laugh.

"It is a lot of work," he said. "It's really interesting though. I'm enjoying it so far, but now I'm getting into my major courses and it's going to be considerably tougher from here on out."

The waitress returned to take their lunch order, interrupting their conversation.

"I'll have a double with everything plus extra cheese, French fries, and a Coke with grenadine," Sasuke told her.

"Hmmm, that sounds good," Kiba said. "I'll have the same."

The waitress left without further discussion.

"How long have you and Naruto been dating?" Sasuke inquired. "I hate that I was so lame in high school when he confessed to me and I acted to ridiculous. I thought he would be better off without me as a friend since I couldn't be what he wanted, but really, I'm sure he needed a friend at that time more. I guess I make pretty bad decisions, so you probably should never ask me for advice or anything."

"Yeah, I'll have to remember that," Kiba said with a laugh.

"How do you like CDCBU? I would have gone there too, if they had my major."

"I like it," Kiba said. "I've had a really good time, and most of my classes are cool, most of the professors are interesting."

"Good. My school is kind of uptight. If you aren't like a third or more generation who's gone there, you're pretty much nobody."

"That sucks," Kiba said as the waitress brought out their food and drinks. "This better be good."

After the first bite, Kiba devoured all the food that had been brought to him. Sasuke and Naruto had been right, it was super delicious.

"Gah!" he said after finally finishing everything. "That really was excellent!"

"I told you it would be," Sasuke laughed.

"I'm going to make Naruto bring me here again before we go back. How long will you be home before you go back to school? We're supposed to go back sometime after Christimas, but maybe we should all hang out again before..."

Kiba had become comfortable with the Raven in their short span of time together over lunch. He was still slightly guarded though due to what happened when they had met at Thanksgiving. For some reason though, he felt like it was all right, maybe because Naruto and Sasuke had been friends for so long. He felt he would like to hang out together again though.

"Here, let me give you my number," Sasuke said. "Then you will have it too and we can all figure out a time to meet up."

"Cool," Kiba said. "I think Naruto would like that also."

**xXxXx**

That night, Naruto was talking with Kiba as they lay in bed together.

"I'm really glad you and Sasuke got along today," the blonde said. "He told me he'd like to come and visit at school sometime. Would that be all right?"

"Yeah," Kiba said. "He's pretty cool when he's not being a jerk,"

"My name for him was always 'bastard' ever since we were little," Naruto said. "So it's funny you say that. He always called me "loser."

Naruto then leaned in and started kissing Kiba's neck. Kiba's hands slid down Naruto's chest from his shoulders, he pulled Naruto's tshirt off over his head, letting it fall to the floor. They began kissing each other, Kiba's tongue entering his boyfriend's mouth, sliding against his own tongue. Kiba gently squeezed and rubbed Naruto's nipples as they continued kissing, at which point Akamaru fled to the unoccupied bed.

Naruto used his arms to push Kiba over onto his side, so that he was now facing the wall. Then he buried his face in his boyfriend's thick, brown hair, inhaling his scent. He wrapped his arms around Kiba and began kissing the back of Kiba's neck which sent thrilling sensations through Kiba's body.

"MMMmmmm" Kiba sighed. "I'll give you head, but just keep doing that for a minute..."

"I kind of wanted something else tonight," Naruto whispered into Kiba's ear. Kiba immediately tensed like a stretched rubber band. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing..." Kiba lied.

"Kiba, I felt you suddenly become tense just now...We've been together for a month, but we haven't had sex yet beyond sucking each other off. I'd kind of like to be with my boyfriend completely..."

Kiba had become silent and withdrawn now and didn't answer.

"Don't do this again," Naruto pleaded. "I'm here for you, and I want to understand you, but I can't if you don't tell me anything."

"I..." Kiba began, but his conscious spoke to him first.

_"Don't tell him! He'll despise you and dump you like what happened last time!"_

"I'm sorry..." Kiba said, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"It's OK," Naruto said as he wrapped his arms around Kiba again and hugged him. "I love you, and I'm here to support you. Maybe tonight wasn't really the best night to bring up something new, seeing as how we're in my grandparent's house, in a single bed. Can we talk more about this when we get back to school?"

"Yes," Kiba said, somewhat forlornly. "I want you to know it's not you. I'm just different..."

"I love you, Kiba," Naruto said.

"I love you too, Naruto," Kiba said, feeling safe held in his lover's strong arms. He only wished he could fall asleep instantly though, so he wouldn't have to listen to his damned conscious any longer...

_"It's really kind of funny, you know...you're a whore but you won't have sex with your boyfriend! You'd rather have Sasuke fuck you anyway. I know you thought he was hot today at lunch and you kept looking at him when you thought he wouldn't notice. His dark eyes...you liked them, didn't you?"_


	13. Chapter 13

**Part XIII**

The first day back to class for the Winter semester was kind of a wake-up call to Naruto and Kiba. They had spent nearly all of the break in lazy splendor, but it was now time to start back to classes, homework, and studying. Classes started on Monday and both boys had plenty to do. Naruto had Advanced Creative Writing and Literary Research and Kiba had his much-dreaded Algebra along with Renaissance Europe and American Poets. The class they were most anticipating, though, was the American Films course they had taken together.

That was the only class Kiba had on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while Naruto had Literary Interpretation in the morning on those days. Kiba had told him to come over to this apartment after his class let out so that they could spend the day together before going to the film class, which didn't begin until 7:00 at night.

At 6:00, Kiba took Akamaru out for a quick walk around the block, and then he and Naruto left for campus around 6:15. The weather was quite cold now and they were both wearing heavy coats, gloves, and scarves. The wind was blowing, making it feel even colder. Once on campus, they cut through as many buildings as possible to avoid being outside.

They finally reached the correct building and hurried down the hallway to locate the correct classroom. They entered the classroom, which was sparsely populated by other students, and took seats by the window in the front row. There was a projector and screen set up, indicating that they would likely be watching a film that evening.

Kiba took off his wool jacket and fur-lined leather gloves. Naruto also shrugged off his white parka. Kiba took a pad of yellow notepaper from his messenger bag and placed it on the surface of the long row-desk along with an ink pen.

"You're always so prepared," Naruto joked.

"You get an extra benefit though," Kiba said, a mischievous grin showing on his face. "I'll share my notes with you for certain...'favors.'"

"Hmmmm," Naruto thought. "Can you be in all my classes?"

Kiba laughed as the professor can in, only a couple minutes late for the class start time. He set down his briefcase and pulled from it a sheaf of papers, handing them to the first student in the front row with instructions to take one and pass on the rest. Kiba and Naruto took their copies, finding it to be the course syllabus. It read as follows:

**20th Century American Films**

**Course Schedule - Winter Semester**

Week 1 _He Who Gets Slapped_ (1924), directed by Victor Seastrom

Week 2 _Sunrise_ (1927), directed by F. W. Murnau

Week 3 _Morocco_ (1930), directed by Josef von Sternberg

Week 4 _City Lights_ (1931), directed by Charles Chaplin

Week 5 _The Letter_ (1940), directed by William Wyler

Week 6 _Rebecca_ (1940), directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Week 7 _Sunset Boulevard_ (1950), directed by Billy Wilder

Turn in Mid-term Paper

Week 8 Break

Week 9 _High Noon_ (1952), directed by Fred Zinneman

Week 10 _Breakfast at Tiffany's_ (1961), directed by Blake Edwards

Week 11 _Lawrence of Arabia_ (1962), directed by David Lean

Week 12 _The Great Gatsby_ (1974), directed by Jack Clayton

Week 13 _Annie Hall_ (1977), directed by Woody Allen

Week 14 _The Last Emperor_ (1987), directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

Week 15 _Dangerous Liaisons_ (1988), directed by Stephen Frears

Week 16 Turn in Final Paper

"I've seen some of these, and I have _City Lights _on DVD," Kiba commented to Naruto. "And of course, I've read The Great Gatsby. It's one of my favorite books."

"Cool," Naruto said. "I've see one or two also, and I've read _Gatsby_ too."

"Good evening," the professor spoke. "And welcome to my class. I am Professor Arbitous. As you see, there are only twenty-five students in this course, so it will be easy for me to get to know each of you. This is good for me since a large percentage of your final grade will be dependent on your participation in the class discussions regarding the films we will be viewing."

"Eeek!" Naruto whispered. "He seems pretty serious."

"I must apologize to you all in advance," the Professor Arbitous continued. "This first course is going to run over the time limit tonight because we will be watching the first film together in class since it would be unfair to expect you all to watch it in only two days and be prepared for discussion on Thursday. If any of you should be unfortunate enough to have another class after mine, which is already late enough as it is, you may quietly exit at the time you need to get to your next class. What you miss of the film will not be enough where you will not be prepared for Thursday's discussion time.

"Now," he continued. "With that being said, this will be the only class period where we watch a film together. You will be expected to view each week's film outside of class and by the Tuesday class period, meaning that by next Tuesday, all of you should have watched _Sunrise_ and are prepared to discuss various aspects of the film, which are not set in stone. The discussions will be dynamic and led mostly by you, with me pointing out certain aspects for consideration.

"As far as grading for the course goes, you may have noticed that there are only two assignments listed on the syllabus: A mid-term paper and a final paper. These two papers will make up sixty-eight percent of your final grade, so they are very important. We will discuss them more on Tuesday due to the time constraints today of having to watch a film. In addition to the two papers, there will be a one-question quiz on each Thursday. These quizzes will make up ten percent of your final grade, with the remaining twenty-two percent coming from your participation in class discussions.

"Now, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I have been teaching courses here at the university for nearly twenty years. Before that I worked at the CBC as many different things, including a camera technician, a lighting specialist, a television producer, a writer, a copy-editor, and a film archivist and historian. Then I retired and started teaching. I've see over five thousand movies in my life, and I'll know instantly whether or not you have actually watched the films for class or if you are merely trying to muddle your way through by reading plot synopses online. My advice to those thinking of doing this is do not. This course is meant for appreciation of the artistic and cultural merit of a film and you will get nothing out of the course by reading about it only.

"In order to assist you in viewing the films for class, I have five copies of each of these films that can be signed out from my office starting the Wednesday of each week. So, tomorrow the five copies of Sunrise will be available starting at 8:00 in the morning from the secretary in the Dramatic Arts Faculty office in Corbin Hall. However, you will get this warning only once. When you check out a copy, it must be returned to the faculty office by 2:00 pm the next day so that all students have ample time to view the films. Due to past experience, anyone who does not return the copy by that time will automatically fail the course and be withdrawn from the course registry. Of course, since implementing this rule, I have not had to fail a single student for not returning copies. Please do not make any of you the first. In the past, students have found that group viewings are helpful to ensure that they are prepared for class."

"He's rather long-winded for all his talk about being pressed for time tonight," Kiba whispered to Naruto.

"Agreed," Naruto whispered back.

"Regarding tonight's film," Professor Arbitous droned on. "_He Who Gets Slapped_ was the first film produced by the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer company. MGM became the biggest studio in Hollywood and if you worked in the film industry at that time, you wanted to work at MGM. The film is based on a Russian tragedy, so pay particular attention to the tragic aspects of the characters in the film. It was directed by Victor Seastrom, who was a famous Swedish director who emigrated to the United States to continue making films here. It stars Lon Cheney in one of his best roles, and he uses the dramatic device of pathos to particular effect in the film.

"Now, let's watch the film," he said shuffling back to the desk at the front and inserting a DVD into the laptop he had earlier connected to the projector. "I'm not going to turn off all the lights because I've noticed over the years it tends to make students fall asleep."

He started the film and Naruto and Kiba sat back in their chairs watching the procession of clowns prance out onto the screen of the movie's opening sequence.

After the film ended and class let out, Naruto and Kiba were walking across the frozen campus to Eddowes Hall to take refuge in Naruto's dorm room for a while.

"What did you think of the movie?" Naruto asked as they crunched through the icy snow. "It was quite different than I thought it would be...such a different tone than what I am used to."

"It was so sad," Kiba said. "When HE confessed his love to Consuelo and she slapped him and assumed he was joking. Didn't your heart ache for him when he laughed with her about it when he realized she wasn't taking him seriously?"

"I did," Naruto said quietly. "It reminded me of telling Sasuke..."

'I wondered if it had," Kiba said, taking Naruto's hand in his and squeezing it. "Don't feel bad about that anymore. You're friends again, just live right now and don't think about the past."

Naruto gave Kiba a sly sideways glance, which Kiba noticed.

"I know, I'm a mass of contradictions," Kiba admitted. "I'd like to live just for right now, walking here with you and holding your hand. I try, at least."

"Come on," Naruto said, starting to run, pulling his boyfriend along with him. "I don't want you to get all emo on me! Let's hurry, it's so cold!"

The two burst through the entrance doors of the dorm building after Naruto swiped his ID card through the reader. They stumbled into the lobby laughing and out of breath. They went to the elevators and took one up to the top floor. They exited and walked down the corridor to room 3011. Naruto unlocked the door with his key and they entered.

"Uzumaki and Inuzuka!" Shino called, seeing the two after he turned around at his desk. "What's up?"

"Hey, Shino," Kiba said. "Nice to see you again."

"Yeah," Shino said.

"What about me?" Shikamaru said from his top bunk, where he had been laying and staring at the ceiling. "Don't I get any love?"

"Hey, Shikamaru," Kiba said with a laugh, "Nice to see you too."

"Thanks," Shikamaru said. "It's good to see you again."

"I have to ask," Kiba teased. "Have you gone to class yet this semester?"

"Nah," Shikamaru said, the slightest of smiles appearing on this face. "Maybe next week."

"Nice," Kiba said.

"Well, what do you all want to do tonight?" Naruto asked. "It's early in the semester so homework is no excuse...let's do something fun."

"A little GT5?" Shino asked.

"Maybe," Naruto said. "Have you ever played any racing games, Kiba?"

"I haven't, but it might be fun to watch," Kiba replied.

"Cool," Naruto said. "Let's play that for a while, then maybe Dynasty Warriors."

"I'm down for some Dynasty Warriors," Shikamaru said as he jumped down from his bunk.

The three dorm mates had a large tv in one corner of the dorm and a couch angled in front of it. The four sat down on the couch and Naruto and Shino started to play Gran Turismo. They played for a while until Naruto started wiping out all the time.

"Come on, Naruto!" Shino yelled. "Stop goofing off!"

"Hold this," Naruto said, handing his controller to Kiba. "Shino, let Kiba race go-karts with you."

"Ok, hold on until I finish burning through Roma," Shino said.

"You're a damn tank in this game, Aburame," Shikamaru said. "You just fly through everything."

Shino just chuckled lightly as he maneuvered around the Rome city course he was currently winning, with one more lap to go. He flew through the turns, finally completing the course. He threw up his controller and collapsed back against the couch, relieved from a break from concentrating so hard.

After resting a minute, Shino and Kiba played on the go-kart courses, with Shino completely dominating. Kiba was unfamiliar with the game and kept losing control or going off course. Naruto helped him as best he could with advice, but it was mostly no contest. After Kiba had played for a while, Naruto and Shikamaru took turns trying to beat him also.

They all were having such a good time that Kiba hadn't realized it was suddenly after 11:00.

"Naruto, I should get going soon," he said.

"Awww, it's too late now, why don't you just stay?," Naruto asked.

"Akamaru would be all alone all night," Kiba said. "He'd miss me, otherwise I would stay."

"We could just go get Akamaru," Shikamaru suggested, off-hand without looking up from the game.

"You can't have animals in the dorm," Shino said, also not looking up. "But if no one finds out, how would it be a problem."

"Exactly," Shikamaru answered.

"Well, what do you think, Kiba?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know...I don't want to get all of you in trouble..."

"I wouldn't have said anything unless I didn't give a shit about it." Shikamaru said. "Even though it's going to be a pain in the ass to pull off."

"You'll love it, you rebel," Shino teased as he won the course again.

"All right," Naruto said. "Let's do it."

"OK," Shino said. "Here's what's going to go down. First, I'll take Kiba with me as if I'm going to drop him off back home. We'll pick up Akamaru, and when we are almost back, you guys are going to have to call down to the RA on duty and tell him the shower is clogged up or something, so run the water so it looks wet. Then, when he's away from the front desk, I'll swipe in like it's just me. I'll sneak Kiba and Akamaru up the stairs. Once we get in, your going to need to send the RA back down so that we can get from the stairwell into the room."

"How's that going to work?" Naruto asked. "The RA will get here and see the shower is fine..."

"Yeah," Shino said. "You'll just say it suddenly started draining...problem solved."

"Might work," Shikamaru commented. "Might not..."

"I really don't want you guys getting kicked out of your dorm," Kiba said.

"The worst that would happen is we get caught and have to take you back home and us three will get written up," Naruto said. "We won't get kicked out on a first offense."

"Come on, Kiba," Shino said as he put on his gray overcoat, turning up the collar over his lower face.

Kiba got up and put on his coat, following Shino to the door.

"Timing is going to be critical," he said turning around. "Kiba and I will have to wait around out side until you confirm the RA is on his way up, then I'll text you when we are in the stairwell. Get rid of him then."

"You sound like your in the Secret Service," Shikamaru said. "Keep it light."

Shino and Kiba left in Shino's vehicle, drove across town, retrieved Akamaru, and headed back to the university. On the way, Kiba kept constantly sending text messages to Naruto giving him their position. Since it was a weekday, they had to park back in the student lot and walk back to the dorm. They walked back to the dorm, and Shino had Kiba wait by the one corner of the building as he sent a text to Naruto and Shikamaru telling them to call down to the RA. Shino then slowly walked past the front of the building watching to see if the RA had left the front desk yet. He could see the RA talking on the telephone and it appeared to Shino the RA was not at all pleased. In fact, he seemed to be a little exasperated.

_Whichever one of my roomies called him must be laying it on thick_ he thought, grinning. _I bet it's Naruto._

After a few more minutes of talking, the RA slammed down the telephone and put up the 'On Rounds' sign on the desk. He got up and went over to the elevator.

Shino motioned for Kiba and Akamaru to come down toward the entrance. As soon as the elevator door closed, they rushed toward the entrance. Shino swiped his ID card in and the ran through the door, darted down the first floor east hallway, and to the stairwell at the far end of the hallway. Shino opened the fire door and let Kiba and Akamaru run through. They quickly made their way up to the top floor and Shino sent a message to the other two that they were at the top. Shikamaru sent a message back letting them no the RA was just about to leave and for them to wait until he came and got him out of the stairwell.

They waited a few minutes before Shikamaru came down the hall, opened the door, and called them up. They all hurried back into room 3011, slamming the door shut. Akamaru barked excitedly at seeing Naruto and Shikamaru, and Kiba quickly quieted him down in case the RA might be wandering around the hallway, or any of the other students.

"Fuck," Kiba said. "Why didn't I bring any clothes to wear tomorrow or at least something to sleep in?"

"Probably you were too busy concentrating on getting Akamaru in here," Naruto said. "You can borrow some of my clothes."

"Well, both of us have early classes tomorrow," Kiba said. "We should probably get some sleep."

"Yeah, I'm getting tired," Naruto agreed.

He went to his wardrobe and got out a tshirt and a pair of gym shorts for Kiba to sleep in. Kiba changed into them as Naruto changed into his usual gray sweatpants.

"Hey Shino," Shikamaru said. "You don't have class tomorrow and I'm not going to mine, so play Dynasty Warriors with me for a while."

"Cool," Shino said, then asked Kiba and Naruto. "We won't keep you guys up if we play, will we?"

"Nope, go ahead," Naruto said as he climbed in under the covers. Kiba climbed in after him and Shikamaru pulled the partition shut that separated the sleeping area from the living area of the dorm room.

Naruto kissed Kiba and then called Akamaru, who was sitting next to the bed in anticipation. He jumped up more-or-less landing on top of Kiba, who groaned at the dog's weight suddenly upon him. He tried to shift around so there was a little room for the dog to settle, but the bed was so small it didn't seem to be working out. After a little bouncing around, Akamaru settled down lengthwise between the two boys.

"This isn't very romantic, Akamaru," Kiba said. "Oh well...I guess it can't be helped."

"It's all right," Naruto said reaching under the dog's chin and taking ahold of his boyfriend's hand. "We'll make do."

The next morning, Kiba awoke, severely regretting the plan to stay at Naruto's dorm. Akamaru lay stretched out on his side over the entire half of the bed with his paws sticking over the edge of the mattress. Kiba had somehow ended up jammed against the wall stacked on top of Naruto, but with their heads at opposite ends of the bed. Kiba's head was painfully bent against the footboard of the bed.

"You're beastly, Akamaru," he said, shifting to try and relieve the pain of his neck. He tried pushing Akamaru down, but the dog suddenly had become a deadweight and refused to move. Kiba shifted again and felt Naruto begin to stir awake.

"Kiba," the blonde asked sleepily, not fully awake yet. "Why are your toes in my face?"

"You'll need to take that up with Akamaru," Kiba answered. "I feel crippled."

"Gahhh," Naruto said as he tried to stretch. "I need to get up for class."

"And we need to get me and this pile of concrete out of here," Kiba added poking Akamaru in this side.

"Yeah, it will be easy now," Naruto said. "All the side doors are unlocked during the day, so we can just go down the stairs and out the side."

"Cool, let's get you off to your class then I'll take Akamaru back and go to Algebra, then meet you for lunch?"

"Yeah, sounds good," Naruto said as he struggled to climb over the dog who was still refusing to be budged at all. "Go ahead and raid my closet for something to wear."

Kiba grabbed a black hoodie out of the closet and pulled it on over his head. Rummaging around through the wardrobe further, he took out a pair of beat up jeans and yanked them on over the gym shorts he had slept in. Naruto had gone to brush his teeth before class and came back to the room as Kiba was hooking Akamaru back up to his lead. He had his coat on and his messenger bag and was ready to go.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed. "Those are my favorite pants, so keep them safe. Every hole and tear in them has made them comfortable beyond belief."

"I will," Kiba said, kissing Naruto on his cheek. "Anything for you."

Naruto pulled on a pair of warm-up pants and his coat and was then also ready. He opened the door cautiously to make sure no staff were about, then he, Kiba, and Akamaru went down the hallway to the stairs.

"Nice hound!" a kid said randomly to them as they went through the fire door.

Kiba left Naruto at the front of the building his class was held in. Naruto kissed him on the mouth, not caring if anyone saw.

"See you at lunch," he said. "Love you...thanks for staying last night."

"I love you too," Kiba said and then continued onward back to his apartment.

As he walked through one of the courtyards, he noticed a young man walking a ways ahead of him, among a group of students who must have gotten out of class. A cold feeling ran through his body and he shivered as he realized he recognized the dark brown hair.

Akamaru suddenly caught a familiar scent he hadn't been exposed to in quite some time, and he started straining and pulling on his lead.

"Please don't bark, Akamaru," Kiba whispered. "Please don't..."

Kiba quickly darted down a side fork in the path which led to another group of buildings on campus hoping he was wrong about what he was thinking. Nervously he looked over and suddenly felt ill as the young man looked toward him at the same time. Kiba had no doubt now: his ex-boyfriend appeared to be attending classes at the university now. Kiba bent his head down and quickened his pace, hoping he had looked away fast enough that he hadn't been recognized.


	14. Chapter 14

**Part XIV**

"Why are you with this closeted asshole?!" Chouji nearly shouted at Kiba. He had drove up from his own university to visit Kiba after Kiba had called him to tell him he had seen his ex-boyfriend on campus yesterday.

"Stop calling him that," Kiba said softly, feeling as if he might want to cry. "Naruto is a good boyfriend and loves me."

"Then why don't you tell him anything? I'm the one you called last night, not him!"

"I should tell him," Kiba said. "He'd be OK I think..."

"I think he just gets off on sleeping with you," Chouji said. "You need to forget about all this ex-lover nonsense and this Naruto nonsense and get drunk. I brought some whisky with me!"

"Chouji, it's only 10:30 in the morning..." Kiba said.

"Who cares!?" Chouji shouted, going into the kitchen and retrieving a shot glass from Kiba's cupboard and pouring out some of the Jameson whisky he had brought with him. "Here, this will make everything better!"

Kiba reluctantly took the shot and swallowed it. Chouji immediately poured out another and then a third which Kiba also consumed.

"There, that's better now, isn't it?" Chouji asked. "Now let's go look around the interwebs..."

Intermittently, Chouji kept giving Kiba more shots of whisky in between the time he was spending trolling around the internet chat rooms. He had given Kiba around fifteen shots, making Kiba blissfully forgetful of his past. However, instead of feeling completely carefree as he usally did when Chouji got him drunk, Kiba had an underlying feeling of guilt and a strong longing to have Naruto with him. He wandered over to where Akamaru was laying in front of the fireplace and lay down with him, snuggling up against the big down and running his hands across his head and back affectionately.

"Ak'aru," Kiba slurred, "You miss Naru'o too, don't you?"

The dog turned to his master and licked his face, as if trying to comfort him. Kiba laughed and scratched Akamaru behind his ears.

"He loves you too," Kiba whispered.

Kiba then pulled his phone out of the pocket of his jeans and sent a text message to his boyfriend.

**Come over in a little while...i want u :P**

A few second later Naruto sent a message back

**Orly? I'm very intrigued. have anything particular in mind?**

**we shoudl fuck...**

**:D I thought your friend was coming over and we were supposed to meet for film class later?**

**i'll get rid ofhim...i'll tell u when to leave**

**nice, hope it's soon. love you**

**love u too...akmaru lovse u too ;)**

"What's going on over there?" Chouji called from where he was sitting on the couch with his laptop. "Do you need some more Jamie?"

"Ugh," Kiba said. "Don't gimme none more."

"Well get over here and look at these two guys I'm talking to."

"NO!" Kiba suddenly yelled. "Naruto is coming over soon."

"What?!" Chouji shouted. "I thought he had class? Why would you tell him to come over now, when we could be having more fun without him?"

"Yes, he had class earlier this morning, but he's out now. I want him to come over."

"That's bullshit!" Chouji raged. "I drove all the way up here to hang out and now you're going to have Naruto come over?"

"I guess so," Kiba answered. "You can stay if you want to...we might be a while though..."

"I'm leaving," Chouji said as he began to shut down his laptop. "I can't believe how selfish you're acting!"

Kiba smiled slightly and sent a text to Naruto:

**Leavenow...Chouji is going now**

**On my way!**

"Next time you can drive down to see me and only stay a couple hours!" Chouji said as he stomped out of the apartment.

Kiba shut the door and locked it before collapsing on the floor next to Akamaru in a fit of laughter.

"He's so pissed!" Kiba said to him. "I don't care though, do you?"

Akamaru barked.

"You're so smart, so smart, boy," Kiba said.

About twenty minutes later, Naruto arrived at the apartment and nearly ran up the stairs to the door. He knocked lightly and Kiba got up and unlocked the door, pulling it open.

"Hey sexy," he said as Naruto came in, dropping him book bag to the floor. Kiba grabbed him and put his arms around his neck and kissed Naruto wildly, crushing their mouths together, biting at Naruto's lip and tongue. Naruto was suddenly startled and held Kiba back a moment.

"Kiba, are you drunk?" he asked.

"Maybe," Kiba said evasively as he pulled Naruto over to the couch. "I just want you..."

"I want to know why you're drunk at this time of day when you have class later," Naruto said with concern. Naruto watched as Kiba's countenance suddenly changed, indicating his withdrawing from the situation.

"Kiba, don't do this right now," Naruto said. "I'm worried about you."

Kiba sat for a moment starting forlornly. He then got up and went to the kitchen to get himself a glass of water. Naruto followed him and tried to hug him but Kiba's protective instinct made him shy away, although he didn't mean to do it.

"Kiba, tell me what's wrong," Naruto pleaded.

"It's nothing," Kiba said lamely. He put his glass down on the counter and suddenly fell into Naruto's arms. "I need to lay down."

Naruto took his boyfriend into the bedroom and laid down next to him on the bed, letting Kiba rest his head on his chest. He ran his hand through Kiba's shaggy, dark hair trying to comfort him.

"Will you please tell me what's wrong?" Naruto said again. "Did something happen when your friend was here?"

"No," Kiba started to say, then buried his face in the sweater Naruto was wearing. "He just had some whisky, I could have said no if I'd wanted to."

"What was it then?" Naruto asked softly.

"I..." Kiba hesitated, but then he wanted to tell Naruto more. "I saw my ex-boyfriend on campus yesterday. It kind of freaked me out a little. I was also worried you would be annoyed..."

"Kiba" the blonde said. "That's nothing for you to try to escape by getting drunk. And I'm not annoyed. I told you I'm here to help you. I'm your boyfriend, that's what I'm here for."

"I'm sorry," Kiba said tightly wrapping his arms around Naruto's middle. "I'm not used to that yet I guess."

"Can you tell my why you were freaked out?"

Kiba lay silently against Naruto for a few minutes, then shook his head. "It was just unexpected, it threw me off more than I thought."

"Well, don't worry about it anymore," Naruto said as he traced his finger over the red fang on Kiba's cheek. "You didn't have a very good experience with him, did you?"

Kiba just hook his head again.

"Come up here," Naruto said, drawing Kiba's chin up. "Let me see you face, you're so cute..."

He kissed Kiba deeply and passionately, causing the still drunken Kiba to respond in arousal. Kiba pressed his hips against Naruto's leg. Naruto deftly pulled off the plain white tank tshirt Kiba was wearing and threw it aside onto the floor.

Kiba crawled over top of Naruto, his knees on either side of Naruto's thighs and his two hands planted firmly on either side of his head, as the two continued kissing. Naruto ran his hands over Kiba's arms and chest, he tugged lightly on the two small, silver rings which pierced Kiba's nipples, making Kiba shudder with pleasure. Kiba began kissing Naruto's ear and cheek and throat. He then yanked the sweater over his boyfriend's head and pulled it off. Naruto was wearing the white button-up shirt Kiba had given him at Christmas under the sweater.

Kiba continued kissing and biting at Naruto's neck and along his collar bone. He agressively pulled at the shirt, kissing the blonde's exposed chest. He pulled again, a little too hard as he caused the next two buttons to tear off the shirt.

"Whoa," Naruto said. "Slow down there..."

Kiba didn't really listen though as he continued assaulting Naruto's now more-exposed chest. He bit at Naruto's nipples, causing them to harden and making the blonde convulse slightly from the pain mixed with the enjoyment of his boyfriend's attentions.

Naruto's hands made their way down Kiba's sides and he unbuttoned the top button of Kiba's jeans, then pulled the fly to unbutton the others.

"That's hot," he said upon discovering Kiba was wearing nothing under the jeans.

He yanked them down and Kiba kicked them off, making him now completely naked over top of Naruto.

He reached down and yanked Naruto's belt open then unbuttoned and unzipped the khaki pants he was wearing. Pulling them off along with Naruto's boxers, leaving the blonde in only his socks. Kiba gazed down upon the blonde's naked body. Naruto's erection stood up against Kiba's abdomen and the dark-haired boy reached down grasping it firmly in his hand and began stroking it. Kiba's own erection hung down between his legs, grazing Naruto's thighs.

Naruto grabbled Kiba's wrists and rolled over, so that Kiba was now beneath him. He pinned Kiba's wrists above his head with his one hand while the other explored across his stomach and down lower, to the spot just above his erection which drove him wild. Naruto's hand reached the spot and Kiba began thrusting his hips up against his lover's hand. Naruto bent down and kissed Kiba again, licking along the outside of his ear.

"I want you so fucking bad right now, Kiba," he whispered, biting Kiba's earlobe.

"I want you too," Kiba said, groaning in pleasure.

"Where are your condoms?" Naruto asked.

Kiba pointed to the nightstand on the right of the bed, and Naruto pulled open the drawer, grabbed one of the condoms, and ripped it open. He then unrolled it over his length and knelt between Kiba's legs, lifting one up and over his shoulder. He took a small bottle of liquid from the drawer also and poured some out over himself and onto his hand to ready Kiba's entrance, using two of his fingers to ready him also.

Naruto then positioned his member against Kiba and began easing into him. He bent down again to kiss Kiba, pushing his tongue into his mouth. Kiba kissed him back as Naruto quickly entered him fully.

"Oh, fuck," Kiba gasped, sharply inhaling at the sudden pain. "Go slow, Naruto."

"I'm sorry," Naruto said, kissing Kiba again and stopping his movements.

A few minutes later, Kiba began slowly pushing himself down over Naruto's erection. Naruto then slowly started pushing himself farther into his boyfriend. Soon he was moving faster, sliding in an out, enjoying the sensation of possessing his lover for the first time. Naruto began panting lustfully as he continued fucking Kiba.

"You're so fucking hot," Naruto said.

Kiba pulled his wrists free and grasped Naruto's upper arms, feeling his boyfriend's muscles straining as he thrust into him. Kiba groaned in pleasure every time the blonde moved deeper into him.

"Your dick feels so good, Naruto," Kiba said, digging his nails into Naruto's arm muscles. "Fuck me harder...make me cum from you being inside me."

Naruto began thrusting faster and deeper, pulling almost fully out of Kiba before slamming himself back into his boyfriend. Kiba began thrusting his hips hard against Naruto as they continued fucking and Naruto reached down, grabbing Kiba's erection. He then forcefully pumped him with his fist. Kiba grasped at the bedding with both his hands as he succumbed to the ecstasy on being fucked by his boyfriend, soon feeling the rising orgasm coming from the action of Naruto's hand. Suddenly he was crying out as he came over Naruto's hand and onto his own chest and stomach. Naruto licked his hand as he continued to fuck Kiba hard. He soon was also experiencing his own orgasm, pushing himself deeply into his boyfriend and he completed before collapsing down on top of Kiba.

They both lay together, breathing heavily, both covered in sweat and Kiba's semen. Naruto gently kissed Kiba before getting up to dispose of the condom. He then returned to his boyfriend and the two snuggled up together on the bed.

"That was intense," Kiba said. "You're really good."

"Thanks," Naruto said. "It was pretty damn good for me too."

"I love you," Kiba said as he snuggled up to Naruto, both still naked.

"I know," Naruto said as they began to fall asleep. "I love you too."

**xXxXx**

"Kiba," Naruto said across the small table. "Please don't do anything like you did this morning anymore, OK? I was really worried when I found you drunk."

The two had gone out to Chen Lee's Garden for dinner before their shared American Films class began at 7:00. They were sitting across from each other in one of the small tables that ran down the middle of the room.

"I know, and I'm sorry," Kiba said. "I won't do that anymore. I'm not used to having anyone be there for me or worrying about me. I want to tell you things, and I will...they just need to come out naturally though. You're unbelievable patient."

"I am here for you, so don't forget it. And I understand and won't pressure you either."

"I still sometimes wonder at how you're so good at getting me to admit things," Kiba went on. "Your so familiar though. I know I've told you this before, but it does feel like I've always known you. Do you think we knew each other before?"

"I don't know about all that," Naruto said as Ming brought their food to the table.

"I don't really know either," Kiba said with a light laugh.

After they had finished eating, they had some time before they had to leave to go to class, so they sat for a while talking more.

"Have you filled out your passport application?" Kiba asked.

"Some of it, but I didn't complete it yet," answered Naruto.

"OK, but will you finish it this weekend?" said Kiba. "We can go to have your photograph taken next Tuesday and send it to be processed afterwards."

"I will," Naruto replied. "When will you tell me more about where we're going?

"Maybe when we get there," Kiba joked. "No, really I can show you some things this weekend, because I want you to help me find a place for us to stay."

"That sounds interesting. When are we supposed to go?"

"We'll go in early August and come back a few days before the semester starts. It will be a nice break."

"Yeah, it will be awesome considering I haven't been out of the country before."

"We should probably start walking over to campus now," Kiba said. "What do you think old Arbitous is going to be chattering away about tonight?"

"No idea," Naruto said as the two exited from the restaurant out into the cold January evening.

A silvery crescent moon hung low in the cloudless, starlit sky as they walked toward the university.


	15. Chapter 15

**Part XV**

Kiba was dreaming:

_He walked into Naruto's dorm room, transported as if my magic from one side of the door to the other without having really been in the hallway at all...instead he only recalled a fog-shrouded area. He felt it was nightime. He looked around the empty room; no one else was there. All the overhead fluorescent lights were turned on. Tentatively, he took a few steps forward toward Naruto's desk, which stood in a row along one wall, in a line with Shino's and Shikamaru's desks. _

_As he moved, the room seemed to lengthen, defying any logical constraints of the mortal world. He reached the desk a moment later and looked up, out through the window. The heavily clouded sky was lit a violent shade of apricot, indicating it was probably morning and a storm was approaching. Suddenly, Kiba was looking out onto the courtyard through the window, as if then entire building had been tilted forward. He felt vaguely uneasy and turned around, expecting someone to be behind him. He was still alone._

_His unease grew as he sensed someone, or something, beyond the closed door to the hallway. He approached the door to make sure it was locked then heard something shuffling about in the hallway. He immediately became terrified, backing slowly away from the door and out to the living area of the dorm room. He saw the couch where he had played video games with the other boys and went to it, feeling the fabric of the upholstery beneath his hand. Somehow it seemed reassuring to him, and he felt safe and became calm. _

_Meanwhile, the shuffling in the hallway appeared to have increased and Kiba further sensed that if he were to look out the windows, he would see the gray, indistinct forms of the dead who plagued his sleep. With his hand still on the couch, he felt he didn't need to worry. It was quite safe inside this room he thought to himself. No one can get to me in here, and I'll be safe from harm._

_When he next looked up he was no longer next to the couch. Instead, he was standing next to Naruto's and Shikamaru's bunk beds. Naruto's bed was a mass of blankets and sheets causing Kiba to smile as he recalled that Naruto almost never made his bed. He lay down on the bed, wrapping the blankets around him, feeling the warmth of them. He pulled Naruto's pillow to his chest, hugging it to him as if it were a substitute for his lover. _

_Naruto will be home soon he thought as he became more groggy and sleepy by the second. I'll be safe here until he returns. Then everything will be all right..._

**xXxXx**

Kiba was sitting in the Amory Hall student lounge waiting for Naruto to get out of his Literary Interpretation class so they could go to lunch together. It was the Thursday of the third week of classes now. Kiba had not seen his ex-boyfriend anymore after the one chance sighting he had two weeks go. He felt relieved and hoped he would not have to deal with him at all during the semester.

Kiba was on campus now so that, after lunch, he could go to the Library to do research for a paper he had to write for his Renaissance Europe history class. He had come early to the university and sat in thought as he drank a canned cappuccino which he had purchased from the vending machine downstairs.

_"You ought to hope you don't run into that Cretin ex-boyfriend"_ his conscience said. _"If Naruto found out, he wouldn't forgive you."_

_Naruto isn't like that_ Kiba answered in his mind. _He isn't jealous and he doesn't instantly think the worst of me._

_"Only because he doesn't know about your secrets."_

_I think he would accept me if he did know..._

_"Are you mad?! You've become too complacent now that you have a boyfriend again. You think you're set for life, don't you? You're a fool. Your life is so fragile and always perilously close to disaster. You've done such vile things, haven't you? Or have you forgotten? What do you think Naruto would think about you if he knew about all the things you've done?"_

_Naruto loves me._

_"He loves an illusion. That's all you are, just an illusion. Don't you realize even now that no one will like you if they no all about you."_

_No, that can't be true._

_"IT IS! It's why things fall apart for you all the time. Once your illusion cracks apart, and it will, no one wants to be around you anymore. Your parents say it often enough, you're worthless."_

_No..._

_"Worthless little Kiba and the dangerous things he does to compensate. Sneaking out of the house and meeting men in the middle of the night...and then your ex-boyfriend and his knife. You liked it didn't you? The cold steel against your skin."_

_STOP IT!_

_What do you think Naruto would feel about you if he knew how used you really were? How shameless and shameful? Even your stupid ex wasn't into you after he found out all about you...what was it he said to you? That you have too much..."_

_SHUT THE FUCK UP!_

Kiba held his hands to his temples trying to stop the maelstrom that was going on in his head. Temporarily it seemed to abate, but then his guard was let down again.

_"You'll never be free of the things you've done. Naruto will tire of you soon enough and then you'll be alone and worthless as usual. Why don't you just tell him all the things you've done? Or the next time you get him into your bed, just show him. I'm sure he'll like it the first time, but then he'll realize what you're all about and then he leave you too. Everyone leaves you..."_

Kiba felt nauseated, as if he would be sick at any moment. He looked at the time on his phone.

_Naruto's class is getting out now_ he thought to himself. _If I go now, I won't see him. I'll send him a text after I get home._

He stood up, pulling on his coat and grabbing his messenger bag. He rushed out the doors and down the stairs to the ground floor, his face distorted with sadness. As he came out into the main hallway, Naruto called to him from down the hallway.

"Hey Kiba!" he said cheerfully. "I got out a few minutes early...ready for lunch?"

Kiba looked down at the ground, wishing he had left earlier.

"Hey, anything wrong?" Naruto asked after reaching his boyfriend.

"I feel sick," Kiba lied. "I need to go home right now...sorry about lunch..."

"No, don't worry, I'll come with you..."

"No, don't." Kiba said trying to smile as best he could. "I'm going to go to sleep, I don't want you to get sick either if it's catchy..."

"Let me walk you home then," Naruto said, knowing something else was wrong. "Kiba, I don't mind, really."

"No, it's ok...I'll text you later..." Kiba said and started to walk away. "I'm not sure if I'll make it to class tonight...maybe I'll feel better though..."

Naruto felt defeated as he watched Kiba quickly walking away down the hall and then through the glass doors that led out into the cold afternoon.

_Why don't you fucking trust me, Kiba?_ he thought to himself, a well of frustration and disappointment overflowing in himself. _All I want is to make your hurt go away._

Naruto turned to walk the other way and head back to his dorm. He punched the brink wall in anger as he did so. The situation built inside of Naruto the whole way back to his dorm. He threw down his backpack and flopped down on his bed. Shino was sitting at his desk, typing on his laptop. Shikamaru had actually gone to his class, so was not in at the moment.

"Hey," he said after turning around and seeing Naruto.

"Hey, Shino," Naruto said forlornly.

He covered himself up with his blankets and turned toward the wall, hoping to fall asleep quickly. A couple minutes later, Naruto's phone began ringing. Think it might be Kiba, he grabbed his coat from where he had dropped it on the floor and pulled the phone from the pocket.

"Hey, you," he said after accepting the call.

"Hey, Naruto, I don't have classes on Thursdays, so I thought I'd give you a call," Sasuke said. "You aren't busy right now, are you?"

"Nope, just got out of class and back at my dorm, laying in bed."

"Cool, I just got up a little while ago. How are things going? Like your classes so far this semester?"

"Yeah, they seem OK so far. How about yours?"

"Hard as Hell, but totally interesting. How are you and Kiba doing?"

The damn burst within Naruto at Sasuke's mention of Kiba's name. Large, glistening tears began sliding from Naruto's blue eyes and across his cheeks. He sat quietly, just holding the phone.

"Hello...still there?" Sasuke said.

"Sasuke," Naruto managed to speak again. "Something's wrong."

Shino turned around in his chair upon hearing the distress in his roommate's voice. He didn't want to listen in on the conversation but could tell something was wrong. He turned back around to give Naruto a little privacy.

"Hey, dude, are you crying?" Sasuke asked. "What's wrong?"

"He shuts me out all the time," Naruto said after calming himself a little. "I know something is wrong, and I want to help, but he doesn't want me whenever he gets like this. He makes me feel like a stranger.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said. "Has he just started doing this?"

"No, he's always been very guarded, and I know his last relationship was not good for him, although he hasn't told me exactly what happened. I think something hurt him in his past, but why does he shut me out? Am I not good enough for him? Does he not want to be with me anymore?"

"No, don't think like that Naruto. Maybe you're right, something has made him that way and he could be really scared of getting hurt again."

"I know," Naruto said, sighing. "I just get so frustrated from not being able to make it better. I love him so much, and I hate seeing him like that. I just wish I could make everything better."

"Just try to be patient. He'll understand that you can help him eventually. Just give it some more time."

"I will...sorry this turned out to be such a lame conversation."

"No worries," Sasuke laughed. "I can be there for you if you're going to be there for your boyfriend. You need some support to once in a while, Loser."

"Thanks, Bastard. I think I'm going to take a nap. I don't have class again until tonight. I'll call you, or call me anytime. It's nice talking to you again."

"Yeah, same here. Talk to you later then."

After they had hung up, Shino got up and went over to Naruto's bed and sat dow on the floor next to it.

"Hey," he said. "Are things really going that rough?"

"Yeah, sometimes anyway," Naruto said. "Sometimes they are awesome though too."

"I'm sorry. I hope everything works out. You and Kiba always seem so happy together. I'm here if you need anyone to talk to."

"Thanks, Shino. I appreciate it."

**xXxXx**

After arriving back at his apartment, Kiba slammed the door shut and locked it as if he could lock out the entire world. He quickly went to his room and climbed into bed, pulling the covers tightly around him before burying his head in the pillows.

"AKAMARU" he shouted desperately.

The big dog came into the room and immediately jumped up on the bed, sensing his master's sadness. Kiba wrapped his arms around the dog and held him close.

"Why did I think it would ever work out for me and Naruto" he said.

Akamaru only nuzzled his head next to Kiba's, trying as best he could to comfort him.

Kiba fell into a restless sleep a while later.

**xXxXx**

After Sasuke had hung up the phone, he brought his knees up to his chest in the chair he was sitting in and silently looked out the window of his dorm room. His roommate had class and wouldn't be back until later in the afternoon. Sasuke was wearing a tshirt and a pair of loose, cotton pajamas that he had slept in.

He felt slightly disappointed at how the conversation had gone. He also felt bad for Naruto and what he was going through. He couldn't help but think that his timing had been monumentally wrong.

_After all this time, you still haven't been able to tell him_ he thought to himself. _You even had the perfect opportunity at Thanksgiving when he beat the shit out of you. Yeah, he'll be pissed that I never told him so far, but Naruto is the type of person who never will give up on someone. I know he'll be all right once the initial shock wears off._

He got up and walked across the small dorm room to pour himself another cup of coffee from the small coffee pot that stood on his desk.

_Why did you have to get so freaked out when he first confessed that he was gay and in love with you? _he asked himself. _ If only you'd told him then that you also were gay, maybe you would have started dating and things would be so different now. As it is, if you'd told him even today, you'd have tons of lost time to make up for..."_


	16. Chapter 16

**Part XVI**

Kiba was lying in his bed, still in a self-pitying mood. Akamaru had jumped up on the bed next to him and kept putting his paw onto Kiba in a display of dominance because Kiba had his back to the dog and wouldn't turn around.

The boy only did move when his phone began ringing. He reached for it and then stopped, giving in to apathy. He supposed it was Naruto calling. After the phone went silent, it began ringing again almost immediately. It wasn't until the third call that Kiba figured he would have to answer or shut the ringer off. He felt bad ignoring his boyfriend, but at the same time, in his mind, he felt any effort on his part would be futile. He ended up answering the call.

"Hey man, it's Sasuke," Sasuke said through the telephone. "I know this isn't really a good time, but..."

"Sasuke?" Kiba said, bewildered.

"Yeah, you remember...that asshole you met at Thanksgiving," Sasuke said with a short laugh. "I need to talk to you, Kiba. I need you to listen to what I'm going to say, OK?"

"It's not really a good time at all," Kiba said sadly.

"Yeah, I know...I know because Naruto told me you had a fight or something. Look, Kiba, he's pretty sad right now. I don't know what's going on and you don't need to tell me, but I fucked up my friendship with Naruto really bad and probably hurt him more than he'll ever admit, so I don't want to see him hurt by anyone else."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Kiba said, somewhat annoyed.

"He doesn't know I called you, Kiba," Sasuke said. "I might be interfering in your relationship, but I think you should know what he said. Can I be honest with you? And will you not tell Naruto I told you?"

"Yeah," Kiba said reluctantly.

"Kiba, he was crying because he said that you shut him out from things in your life," Sasuke said. "I've never had him cry about anything before...I can tell this is really bothering him."

Kiba suddenly felt a new sadness come over him, one mingled with guilt and having made Naruto cry. He bit his lip and squeezed his eyes tightly shut, feeling he might cry himself at having hurt Naruto.

"I know you're probably still a little wary about me," Sasuke continued. "But I want to make up for the stupid things I've done. There's something else too...Kiba, can I tell you something else? Maybe it will help you to know I'm being sincere..."

"What is it?" Kiba asked.

"I've been hiding something from Naruto myself," Sasuke said. "Kiba, back in school, I had to deal with so much pressure from my family to be a 'perfect' son. I was constantly held to the standard my older brother set, which was a close to perfection as anyone could get. He always got perfect grades, was always great in any sport he played or any activity he participated in...I was supposed to be that way too. Once, I remember I received a C grade in one of my sixth grade subjects and my father beat me for it. My parents weren't really interested in being real parents. They were only interested in the plastic illusion of having a 'perfect' family. Well, you don't have a perfect family if you beat your kids for having average grades..."

"That's awful," Kiba said. "And Naruto didn't know any of this?"

"No, he knew about that part of my life and helped me through it. I'm so grateful to him, and Itachi, my brother, helped me too. There were several times Itachi took the blame for things we did to protect me when my father wanted to blame anything bad on me. In high school, when Naruto told me he was into guys and that he liked me, I said I freaked out because I knew I couldn't be what Naruto wanted me to be. That isn't the real reason though."

"What do you mean?" Kiba asked.

"Kiba, I trust you with what I'm going to tell you, and I hope you'll not repeat it unnecessarily..." Sasuke said. "I started to realize that I liked guys myself in the summer between seventh and eighth grades, but it terrified me. You can imagine what my parents might think, so I tried to block all that out and keep it hidden. I tried to be something I wasn't for years and there were times I thought I was going to crack up from all the pressure. If I ever came out to my parents they would disown me."

"Sasuke!" Kiba exclaimed.

"Wait, let me finished telling you..." Sasuke interrupted. "At the same time all this was going on, I was also terrified that if I told Naruto, he would stop being my friend, and I needed him. He was the only outlet I had besides my brother for my stress from my parents except Itachi. So I kept it all hidden. And then that one day when he confessed to me. I really was not prepared and that was the last thing I ever expected him to say to me. It all scared the Hell out of me, and so I lamely made up the excuse in my mind that it would be better for Naruto if he wasn't friends with me anymore. I even believed it for a while myself. And so I continued dating girls and pretending to be straight."

"But you're really gay?" Kiba asked. "You're not bisexual?"

"Nope, I'm not into girls at all. It was just an act. And, yeah, I was too stupid to deal with it when Naruto told me he was too. I ran away from it instead. And I think that hurt Naruto so much. We had been friends for so long, and I just seemed to want to erase all that. I didn't really, though, but I didn't know how to deal with it. Itachi is the only other person I ever told. He found me in my room crying after school one afternoon when I thought no one else was home, and I just spilled everything to him. He told me he had already known I was gay, but didn't want to force me to tell him. And he knew our parents would never accept it."

"You must have been scared," Kiba said. "At least you trusted him and did tell him."

"Yeah, Itachi is actually the one who made me go to school out of state so I wouldn't be near enough to my parents where they might hear things. He told me to get away and finally be who I was meant to be," the Raven said. "But then I was still too scared to tell Naruto I had lied to him, so I kept lying to him all these years. If I ever do tell him, he's going to be so hurt all over again and so pissed at me."

"Are you going to tell him?" Kiba wondered aloud.

"I don't know...I was sort of hoping you might be able to help me decide that."

"I can't decide for you," Kiba said.

"I know, and I want to tell you that I'm not trying to steal your boyfriend or anything. Through all this time, I've only thought of Naruto as a friend, and he's with you now. I want him to be happy. I know he isn't right now though, so I want to ask you if you'll call him or go see him and try to work out whatever is going on. Will you do that?"

Kiba was silent for a few moments before answering.

"I'll call him and see him tonight in class. We have a class together this semester. You probably didn't know that. An course about American films."

"That's cool," the Raven replied. "Look, I know I just laid a ton of shit on you that you never asked for, but thanks for listening. I originally just called to bitch you out, but then I end up coming out to you. You're only the second person I've told."

"Yeah, it's cool," Kiba answered. "I'm kind of shocked though, I never would have suspected you're into guys. You act really straight. Have you been seeing anyone since you went away to college?"

"When I first came here as a freshman, I was totally overwhelmed by all this sudden freedom," Sasuke said. "I went a little crazy, you know, hooking up a little too often, a little too much partying. Getting drunk or high and meeting up for sex or a threesome or whatever. I outgrew that pretty fast luckily. I guess most people probably go through that to some extent as freshman. I never had any experiences before that though."

"Yeah, I think a lot of people do what you did, so don't feel bad about it."

"Cool," Sasuke said. "I guess I should let you go now, I've had you on the phone for a long time now. Thanks for listening to me, and I really do want you to work things out with Naruto."

"I will," Kiba said. "I guess you can call me sometime if you need to talk about things. Wait, that sounded kind of half-assed. What I meant was, don't feel like you'll be bothering me if you want to talk about anything...gah, that doesn't sound any better..."

No, it's cool," Sasuke said, laughing. "I know what you're trying to say, and I appreciate it. Talk to you later then."

"Bye-bye," Kiba said.

_What the fuck is Sasuke gay for?!_ Kiba thought. _As if I didn't have enough to deal with...now I have this closeted dude coming out to me and we've never even talked more than that afternoon we went to lunch together._

Kiba reached over to the nightstand on the left side of the bed and pulled the drawer open. He took out a small bottle and removed one of the pills from it. He swallowed the pill and lay back against the pillows. He had taken one earlier when he came home, but thought perhaps a second one would be even more helpful at this time. Akamaru put his head on the boy's chest and looked up at him with his big, brown eyes.

"It's OK," Kiba said. "I'll take you out in a minute."

_At least Sasuke was trying to help me_ Kiba thought as he stared up at his bedroom ceiling. _He seems like a pretty cook kid. I'll call him next week and check in on him. And he's so handsome. He's so open, like Naruto, but different at the same time. He seems kind of mysterious, maybe a little darker than Naruto._

Kiba took Akamaru out for a long walk around the neighborhood. It was now about 2:00 in the afternoon. He sent Naruto a text message asking if he would come over to Kiba's, and a moment later, Naruto replied that he would be over in a few minutes. Kiba felt relieved and headed back to the apartment.

Naruto arrived a short while later and knocked upon the door. Kiba let him in and grabbed him, pulling him into his arms, and hugging him tightly. Akamaru barked in greeting, licking at Naruto's hand.

"I'm really sorry for how I acted earlier," Kiba said as he and Naruto sat down on the couch. "Sometimes, inside my head, I get really messed up and can't deal with things, and I run away. I know you tell me not to, and I try, but sometimes I can't help it. I guess that's part of who I am. I don't do it to purposefully hurt you. I know it did...your friend called me earlier to tell me off about it."

"What?" Naruto said. "Did Sasuke call you?"

"He did, but it's all right. He wasn't a jerk or anything, and he actually helped me sort some things out and realize I had treated you badly today. I don't know why I lied to you today either. I didn't feel sick, except in my head. I know you're there for me too."

"I am here for you, and all I want is to help you," Naruto said. "I'm glad you and Sasuke talked. That makes me happy that my best friend and boyfriend are getting along! I worry about you sometimes, Kiba. Have you gone to a doctor before about this?"

"Yeah, I have. I have some medicine to take when it gets really bad, but I try not to take it most of the time. It makes me kind of an airhead. Don't worry though, it isn't new, and I've had to deal with it for a long time."

Naruto hugged Kiba and kissed him on his cheek. Kiba sought Naruto's mouth with his own and kissed him more needily. Naruto responded by running his hand up beneath the shirt Kiba was wearing, kissing him greedily now, and running his other hand over Kiba's thigh and between his legs.

Kiba pushed Naruto back onto the couch, pinning his wrists back over his head. He kissed and bit at Naruto's neck causing the blonde to moan and shiver and the sensation that hovered between pleasure and pain. Kiba was being a bit rougher than usual today and Naruto was enjoying it.

Kiba used his knew to spread Naruto's legs apart and then moved his knee up and pressed it between his boyfriend's legs, applying a moderate amount of pressure. He could feel Naruto's erection straining against his jeans and he pressed his knee harder.

"Kiba!" Naruto finally cried out. "It's starting to hurt."

Kiba just smiled slyly, still holding the blonde by his wrists. He finally moved his knee back and reached down to quickly unbutton Naruto's jeans. He reached into Naruto's boxers and wrapped his fingers around Naruto's erection, tugging at it. Naruto moaned again and pressed his hips up against Kiba's hand.

"Get up," Kiba said, yanking his hand back out of the blonde's pants.

Naruto obeyed and stood up in front of Kiba, who was unbuttoning his own pants. He pushed Naruto down onto his knees and pulled his erection free from his pants.

"Suck it," he said as he looked down on his lover.

Naruto took the hard flesh into his mouth and began sucking and running his tongue over the head and along the shaft. Kiba let his head fall backwards as he gasped in pleasure at the feeling of being inside his boyfriend's hot mouth. He grabbed a handful of blonde hair and pushed Naruto farther down, impaling him on his erection. Naruto started to cough and Kiba only lightly let up on his grip. He then began moving himself in and out of Naruto's mouth, pushing himself deep into the blonde's throat. After a few moments more, he pulled himself out and grabbed Naruto by the front of his shirt, pulling him back up and violently kissed him.

"Come with me," Kiba said, pulling Naruto down the hallway to the bedroom.

Kiba shoved Naruto down onto the bed and pulled his jeans and boxers off, and then his socks too. He then grabbed the hem of Naruto's shirt and pulled it up over the blonde's head and threw it on the floor.

He next removed his own shirt and climbed onto the bed on top of Naruto. He pushed his jeans and boxers down off his hips and positioned himself over Naruto after reaching into the nightstand drawer and withdrawing the bottle of liquid from it. Kiba smeared some of the substance over his erection and pressed him self against Naruto's opening. Naruto began to squirm as Kiba's head pushed forward into him. Kiba held him down to the bed with his hands on the other's shoulders.

"Spread your legs," Kiba commanded.

Kiba then thrust forward, forcing the rest of himself into Naruto, who screamed at the sudden pain of the entry. He grasped at the bedding, clenching it in his fists as Kiba began moving slowly in and out. He eased his pressure on Naruto's shoulders, grabbing Naruto's blonde hair again. He roughly pulled back Naruto's head, twisting him so he could kiss his mouth. He then pushed Naruto's head down into the bedding as he quickened his thrusts, going faster and deeper. He lay down fully on top of Naruto and grasped the back of his neck with his teeth.

Kiba stopped a moment to pour out some of the liquid from the small bottle onto his right hand. As he began to fuck Naruto again, he slid his hand beneath his lover and grasped Naruto's erection, letting it slide freely into his fist as he slammed himself into Naruto from behind. Kiba lay back down onto Naruto, now fully thrusting his entire erection into the blonde on each stroke and quickly pulling almost fully out before going back in. Naruto was crying out at each thrust now, from the violent entry of his boyfriend into him. At the same time, he was enjoying the erotic sensation of his own erection sliding through Kiba's tightly gripped fist.

Kiba reached up with his left hand and held it over Naruto's mouth as he continued to fuck him hard. He bent his head down to Naruto's ear and whispered:

"You feel so fucking good, I love having my dick inside you..."

Naruto couldn't respond because of the hand over his mouth. Kiba kept fucking and gripping Naruto's hot member.

_It would be so hot to fuck Sasuke like thi_s he thought, then quickly shook his head as if to shake the thought from his mind.

He bent down again to Naruto's ear, feeling his orgasm rising quickly.

"I love you so fucking much, Naruto," he whispered and suddenly remember he hadn't put on a condom. He quickly pulled himself out of Naruto as his orgasm engulfed him, and his semen shot out all over Naruto's back.

Kiba lay back down and grasped Naruto's erection even tighter than before, and began pumping him until Naruto was suddenly crying out as his cum spilled over over Kiba's hand and onto the bedding.

"Sorry, I didn't use a condom," Kiba confessed.

"Shit, that was so hot," Naruto said, panting for breath. He turned over and kissed Kiba. "I love you. It's all right."

"Thanks," Kiba said with a sly grin. "By the way...that medicine makes me really horny."

"It was awesome," Naruto said. "Do I have time for a shower, and then do you want to go eat someplace before class?"

"It's about 4:30," Kiba said checking his phone. "We were going at it for about ninety minutes. Can I shower with you?"

"That sounds like fun," Naruto said as he got up off the bed.

"Akamaru is going to be pissed again," Kiba said as he followed Naruto to the bathroom.

**xXxXx**

Later that evening, as Kiba and Naruto sat in class holding hands beneath the desk, Kiba kept thinking back to earlier that afternoon.

_Why did I suddenly think that about Sasuke today?_ he thought to himself. _I really love Naruto...maybe it was just from him calling me today and he was in my mind from that._

_"I think we all know why you thought that"_ Kiba's conscious replied.

Kiba was able to silence the voice easily this time with the help of his medicine. He squeezed Naruto's hand and looked over at him. He was intently listening to Professor Arbitous lecturing the class about the dominating way that Josef von Sternberg had directed his star actress Marlene Dietrich in the film they had watched for class that week, _Morocco _and how it had brought from her a very restrained performance that fully realized the character she had played in the movie.

Kiba smiled to himself and reached over and wrote on Naruto's note tablet 'I love you.'

Naruto smiled and winked at his boyfriend before turning back to listen to the rest of the lecture.


	17. Chapter 17

**Part XVII**

January turned into February and soon it was approaching Valentine's day. Naruto was sitting cross-legged on his bed in the dorm room with his roommates, Shikamaru and Shino. Shikamaru was laying in his bunk above Naruto and Shino was sitting in his desk chair facing the other two boys.

"I kind of know what I want to do for Kiba," he said, "But I don't know...it might be kind of boring."

"You should just go wild, Naruto," Shino said. "get a box of condoms and wrap them up for Kiba, then you'll be having fun all night long!"

Naruto chuckled at the absurdity of the idea.

"Shino," Shikamaru said from his bunk. "I'm beginning to understand why you don't have a girlfriend..."

"Hey," Shino said, fake-pouting. "You could have one, but you won't call her regularly."

"It's just...troublesome," Shikamaru said. "It takes a lot of effort to be in a relationship, and I'm still in school..."

"You hardly ever go to class!" Shino interrupted him.

"Hmmm," Shikamaru thought. "Classes are a pain..."

"Ummm, guys," Naruto said. "I'm the one with the boyfriend and you're supposed to be helping me give him a great Valentine's day, not talk about how you both will probably be sitting together in the dorm dining hall for your own Valentine's day."

"Harsh," commented Shino. "Well, you could always surprise him with flowers."

"Flowers can be troublesome also," Shikamaru said. "There's all that nonsense of what color, and how many to be impressive, and what kind exactly. Although Kiba seems pretty laid back. I don't think he'd be so particular about what you get him."

"I did consider having flowers delivered to his apartment in the morning, but he has early classes on Wednesday, so I think he'd be gone before they were delivered. Also, I don't want to take a chance and give him something that possibly his ex-boyfriend may have given him."

"Yeah, that's true," said Shikamaru, sighing. "Has he opened up to you anymore about that? From what you said, he kind of really freaked out from seeing his ex on campus."

"Yeah, he did a little," Naruto admitted. "He's so hard to get to open up, but it's getting better. From what little bit he told me, I think it was kind of an abusive relationship, so I definitely don't want to remind him of that at all by accidentally doing something dumb."

"Even more troublesome."

"Why don't you meet him on campus," Shino suggested. "Then whisk him off someplace, keep him occupied, hang out, just spend time together. You could borrow my truck if you want. As you pointed out, I won't be going anywhere."

"We have a break where we usually get lunch together, then we both have other classes. Maybe I can get him to skip that second class, then we can go to lunch, maybe to a movie, and then out to dinner someplace really nice."

"Then back to his apartment for after-dinner love!" Shino said, then immediately dodged the pillow that Shikamaru had thrown at him.

"Well, that would fit nicely into the plan," Naruto said with a small laugh.

"Sounds like your all set then except for a gift," Shikamaru said. "What have you thought of for that?"

"I'm still debating about that too," Naruto sighed. "I was thinking about this and that, but then I rule out whatever idea I come up with. I just can't think of the perfect thing."

"Something for his apartment?" Shino thought aloud. "That might be nice."

"You both like to read," Shikamaru said. "Is there any particular book that you really liked that you could give him? Something that you really liked that you could share with him by giving it as a gift?"

"Hmmmmm," Naruto thought for a moment. "I do like that idea, but I'm not sure. He's read so much, I wouldn't want to give him something and he already has it or has read it already."

"Might be running out of ideas..." Shino said.

"I did see a really cool sweater at the mall that I think he would look so hot in," Naruto said. "I wasn't sure about getting clothes, but that may be my last option."

"That's a nice idea," Shino said. "I think he would like that."

"Yeah," Shikamaru agreed. "Kiba is always nicely dressed. He would probably appreciate that.

"Great!" Naruto said. "Looks like I just have to go buy it then. And make a reservation for dinner."

**xXxXx**

When the day finally came about, Kiba woke up a while before his alarm clock was about to go off. He had set it late because he figured he would slum it through his algebra class, which he was passing now thanks to Naruto's tutoring efforts. Unfortunately Kiba was not able to skip his American Poets class that afternoon due to a quiz being given. However, the class would likely be let out early, so Naruto was going to skip his class and wait for Kiba.

All Naruto had told Kiba about the Valentine's date was that he should dress nicely and be prepared to be out for a while. Kiba had tried his best to figure out what his boyfriend had planned, but Naruto had kept his secret. Kiba didn't really mind not knowing though, and had only thought it fun to try and find out.

He had purchased Naruto's gift a couple weeks ago, and had it tucked safely into his messenger bag so that he was sure not to forget it. He was slightly nervous about it, but felt it was the right thing for Naruto.

Kiba laid in bed a while waiting for the alarm to go off and stretched luxuriantly beneath the satin sheets and big winter down comforter. He was only wearing his boxers and Akamaru had also slept under the covers that night due to how cold it was. Kiba felt nice and toasty warm and was mostly dreading when he would have to get out of bed and be in the chilly morning air. He cuddled up to Akamaru and nearly fell back asleep when the alarm did finally go off.

Kiba reached over and slammed his fist down onto the clock to silence it. He continued to lay still a few moments longer, still wishing to put off the inevitable. He finally threw off the covers and climbed out shivering. He pulled on his blue Adidas track pants, a plain white tshirt, and a black hoodie. He planned to come back after his algebra class and get ready more thoroughly.

Algebra, as usual, was stupefyingly boring to Kiba and he wondered why he had even gone this morning as he walked across the snowy campus on his way back to his apartment.

_I bet Akamaru hasn't moved from his cosy spot on the bed_ he thought. _I should have stayed with him._

Once he did arrive back home, he took Akamaru out for a walk, wandering leisurely through the streets. The big dog seemed to be enjoying himself, stopping every so often to romp through a snowbank or poke around with his nose.

After their walk, Kiba showered, shaved, and dressed for his outing with Naruto. He picked out a light gray sweater with an ivory silk button-up shirt underneath, a pair of charcoal gray trousers, and then selected a pair of black leather shoes. He was also wearing the bracelet Naruto had given him at Christmas.

_It was kind of odd how Naruto made a point of telling me what he would be wearing, and how he seemed to emphasize how he would be wearing something nicer than usual _Kiba thought as he stood at the bathroom mirror brushing his thick, brown hair. _I'm fairly certain he's probably taking me someplace pretty nice for dinner._

"Well, Akamaru," He said to his dog. "It might be a while before I'm back. I'll try to come by to let you out if I have a chance though. Happy Valentine's day!"

Kiba took a plate of ham from the refrigerator and set it down next to Akamaru's usual food dish. Akamaru's tail was wagging in delight as he ate up the special meal Kiba had given him.

Kiba then put on his black wool coat and his fur-lined leather gloved before leaving once more for campus. He had his Renaissance Europe history class and then the quiz in American Poets. After that, all would be fun for the rest of the day.

Naruto was already waiting for him outside his American Poets classroom in Finch Hall when he arrived there for the start of class.

"Happy Valentine's day!" Naruto said as he gave him quick kiss. "I couldn't stand sitting around the dorm anymore!"

"You're going to make me nervous knowing you're out here waiting," Kiba teased. "I'll probably fail my quiz."

"No you won't," Naruto said. "You'll do fine. I'm going to go sit in the chairs in the lobby, so meet me there whenever you get out. I just wanted to see you before class."

"You're so silly," Kiba said, giving his boyfriend a longer kiss. "And so sexy too."

Naruto chuckled as he walked away down the hall and Kiba went into the classroom to his seat.

**xXxXx**

Naruto and Kiba were sitting across from each other at _La Comète Verte_, the nice restaurant that Naruto had made their dinner reservation at. The dining room was decorated very elegantly, with the furniture upholstered in deep bottle green velvet. There were immaculate white linen tablecloths and green linen napkins on each table. Potted palms were placed throughout the dining area between the tables, giving a bit more privacy to each party. The walls were painted matte black and the ceiling was dark blue and hundreds of small silver metal stars were fastened to the ceiling, giving the illusion that one might be dining outside under the night sky.

Kiba was glancing through the menu and looked up at his boyfriend.

"Naruto, this is a really nice ending to a nice day," Kiba said. "Thank you for planning all of this for us."

"I love you, Kiba, and I wanted to do something special for today."

"I love you too!" Kiba said as he grasped Naruto's hand across the table. "What are you going to order?"

"Ummmm," Naruto stammered. "I'm not sure yet..."

"If there's anything you don't know, just tell me, I'll let you know," Kiba said.

"Well, everything is in French, so I don't really know any of it..." Naruto admitted.

Kiba began translating the various dishes as Naruto listed he started to become more and more hungry. Each dinner entree included a first course, the main entree, a salad, and dessert, and the two had finally decided what they wanted to order as their waiter came by the table.

After the waiter had disappeared again, Kiba once more grasped Naruto's hand from across the table.

"Naruto," he began. "Might I be able to give you your gift right now?"

"If you want to," Naruto said. "But I don't have yours with me at the moment..."

"That's ok," Kiba replied reaching into his messenger bag. He pulled a small black box that was tied with a red satin ribbon from within and slid it across the table to his boyfriend.

"I'm very curious," the blonde said picking up the box and shaking it lightly. "I guess the saying is that good things come in small boxes. Thank you, Kiba."

"Open it!" Kiba said with a small giggle. "You always take forever to open your gifts!"

Naruto pulled the ribbon causing the bow to untie. He then pulled off the lid, removed some cotton, and pulled out a brass key, holding it up. In the semi-dark room it shone like gold.

"Kiba," Naruto said, his voice becoming heavy with emotion. "Is this..."

"It is," Kiba said. "The apartment is as much your home as it is mine and Akamaru's now. So, this is your key. Happy Valentine's day."

"Kiba, you couldn't have gotten me anything better," Naruto said.

"I love you," Kiba said. "And I know I'm difficult at letting people in, but I trust you so much, more than anyone else. Please remember that at the times when I'm being a dumbass. I'd like to say those times are done, but I'm sure it will still happen occasionally."

Naruto gave a slight laugh and then looked at Kiba.

"I really appreciate this," he said, smiling.

"Well, no one else in the universe has an extra key except you," Kiba said.

xXxXx

On the drive back to the apartment, Kiba kept urging Naruto to drive faster.

"Akamaru is probably ready to burst," he said. "Let's get this Shino-mobile moving."

"I don't want to smash up my roommates car or anything," Naruto said. "You're trying to be a bad influence on me I think. As a distraction, why don't you pull that package out of the back seat and open it?"

"OOooohh!," Kiba said gleefully. "I knew that was my present!"

He pulled the package into the front seat and began tearing off the wrapping paper. Kiba then opened the box and pulled out the dark blue sweater. There was also a light blue button-up shirt inside that Naruto had picked out to go with the sweater.

"This is very beautiful!" Kiba exclaimed. "I'm going to wear this tomorrow! Thank you very much. You're such a thoughtful boyfriend."

"Well, it's all I could think of," Naruto said. "It doesn't really compare to your gift to me."

"Don't say that," Kiba said. "I really like it! It is a nice gift. And you bought me lunch, took me to see a film, and bought me a very fancy dinner. That was perfect. I'm a very simple person, as you know..."

"Kiba," Naruto said, trying to suppress his grin. "There's nothing simple about you..."

"Who, me!?" Kiba attempted to act puzzled and looked out the window.

"I'm going to kiss you all over when I get you home," Naruto said.

"Oh?" Kiba said. "Is that all?"

"The rest is too obscene to say out loud..."

"I'll have to walk Akamaru first..."

"You better make it quick then..."

"You can't rush him, you know that. He's liable to take longer if you try to rush him..."

"I'll walk him then," Naruto said. "You just get your clothes off and get into bed..."

Naruto pulled Shino's Cherokee into the visitor parking spot and turned off the ignition. He pulled Kiba to him and kissed him intently.

"Come on," he said. "I have class in the morning."

"I have a feeling your going to be really tired in class tomorrow," Kiba said as they walked up the outside stairs to the apartment door.

Naruto pulled his key from his pocket and unlocked the door, pushing it open. Akamaru burst through the doorway nearly knocking Naruto down. He then ran down the stairs and into the yard.

"Looks like he's going to walk himself tonight," Kiba commented.

"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed as he pulled his boyfriend inside and pushed him against the wall, pulling his coat off as Kiba took off his own coat and his gloves. They both began kissing each other wildly and anywhere they could make contact: hands, lips, necks, ears...anywhere there was exposed skin.

Akamaru came in a moment later and Naruto slammed the door shut and locked it. He then returned to kissing Kiba. They both were now frantically tearing at each other's clothes in an attempt to get them off. Slowly they began heading toward the bedroom leaving a trailed of discarded garments behind.

"I'm going to fuck the hell out of you, Kiba," Naruto said as he and Kiba, now naked, climbed into bed together.

The two began rolling around on the bed, kissing, touching, sucking, grasping at each other's bodies in a frenzy of movement. Naruto reached over to the nightstand, pulling open the drawer and grabbing a condom. Kiba was working his way down the blonde's body, kissing and biting over his abdomen.

Their delirium grew more and more fevered the more they discovered of each other's exposed bodies...continuing on through the night, so that Naruto was indeed extremely exhausted for his class the next morning.


	18. Chapter 18

**Part XVIII**

"Hey, Kiba, how are you doing today?" Sasuke asked over the telephone.

"Hi, Sasuke," Kiba replied. "I'm still in bed. I only have one night class today."

"That's cool," the Raven said. "Mmmm, I wonder if I can talk to you again about what I told you before."

"What do you want to say?" Kiba asked. "Do you need some advice or just someone to listen to you?"

"Hmm, maybe a little of both."

"Well, what's on your mind?"

"I thought about it, and I think I need to tell Naruto the truth once and for all."

"That's probably a good idea," Kiba said.

"Yeah, I really hope he's cool about it...I mean, I guess it's going to really suck to find out I've been lying to him all this time. I just want to make things right though."

"I think he'll be all right. Maybe surprised at first, but you've been friends for so long. I think he'll be glad you're finally telling him."

"I hope so...I was such an ass for so long. I'm kind of scared about telling him actually."

"Well, when do you plan on telling him?"

"I'm not sure. Trying to tell him over the phone has never worked out," the Raven admitted. "I wonder if maybe I could come to your place and hang out there to tell him? I don't mean to keep imposing on you..."

"You mean to have me there when you tell him?" Kiba asked.

"Yeah, if it's ok," Sasuke said. "I think it would help me since you already know."

"Yeah, I guess that would work all right," Kiba said after thinking for a moment. "When would you be able to come up here?"

"When is your spring break?" Sasuke asked. "I think mine is the same week as yours. I was thinking I could maybe drive back home Thursday night before break starts and stay at my parents house. I could drive up to your place on Friday. I don't have any Friday classes, so would that work?"

"Let's see, our Eights Week starts the week of March fifth," Kiba said.

"Yeah, then it's the same."

"OK, cool. I have two classes on Friday though, so I won't be out until 3:30."

"All right, I could leave and be at your place around 4:00 then, would that be a good time?"

"Yeah, that's good. I'll tell Naruto to come over and I'll make dinner for us."

"I don't want you to go to a lot of trouble," Sasuke protested. "I mean, afterall, I'm basically imposing on you as it is. You don't have to cook dinner especially for me."

"No, don't be silly," Kiba said. "I like to cook, and it will be nice to see you again."

"All right, if your sure then. You're really a cool guy, Kiba. I'm glad to know you."

"Bah!" Kiba scoffed. "We're friends now."

"Then I'm glad we're friends," the Raven said laughing a little. "Would you mind not telling Naruto that I'm coming. He won't be expecting to see me, so it might be fun to surprise him."

"Yeah, he would definitely be surprised," Kiba said. "If you don't want me to, I won't tell him. I'll have him come over for dinner at 6:00."

"Great, sounds good," Sasuke said. "Thanks again for listening to me. It really is cool how nice you are Kiba."

"You're welcome," Kiba said. "So I'll see you on March second then. I'll text you my address that week so you have it handy."

"OK, thanks again," Sasuke said. "I'll talk to you later then, and see you in a couple weeks."

"Bye bye," Kiba said before ending the call.

Kiba had been sitting up in bed while he had been talking to Sasuke, leaning back against the headboard with a pillow. He slouched back down under the covers and called for Akamaru, who had gone out to the kitchen for a drink of water. He came back into the bedroom and jumped up onto the bed, where Kiba was holding the blankets back so he would be under them.

"Sasuke is going to come over in a couple weeks," Kiba said as he snuggled up with the big dog. "I'm kind of excited to see him again."

**xXxXx**

"WHAT THE FUCK, KIBA?!" Naruto screamed at his boyfriend. "You knew about this and didn't tell me?! You lied to me, Kiba, the same way he's been lying to me for his whole life it seems!"

A blank look had come over Kiba's face as he sat in saddened silence on the couch in his apartment. Naruto's reaction to Sasuke's confession that he had been hiding his sexuality from Naruto for years and the incident from high school where Sasuke had nearly stopped being friends with Naruto proved too much for the blonde to take in such an abrupt manner. And on top of it, his own boyfriend had apparently known for some time and had said nothing about it. Naruto's mind was reeling and he was unusually upset.

"Naruto, don't yell at him, it's my fault he didn't say anything," Sasuke said. "I made him promise not to."

"I don't believe anything you say, you fucking asshole!" Naruto shouted, this time at the Raven. "We were supposed to have been best friends, and it turns out I don't know you at all."

"I know I have behaved like a piece of shit," Sasuke admitted. "But Naruto, can I just explain to you what drove me to act that way, please just listen to me."

"I can't right now," Naruto said. "I need to be anywhere else right now. Kiba, are you even going to say anything to me?"

"Don't go," Kiba whispered, almost inaudibly.

"I have to go now, I can't even think," Naruto said as he grabbed his coat. "I'll call you in a couple days, Kiba."

"Naurto, wait," Sasuke called as the blonde left the apartment, slamming the door shut behind him.

Silence settled over the apartment and Sasuke and Kiba could hear Naruto's footsteps going down the outside stairs and then walking off into the night.

"He's gone," Kiba whispered, to himself or to Sasuke, the Raven wasn't sure.

He walked over and sat down next to Kiba on the couch. Akamaru, who had been lying on the floor in front of the fireplace during the entire confrontation and sighing heavily, raised his head sharply as Sasuke sat next to his master and emitted a long, low growl while watching the Raven intently.

"I'm really sorry about all this," Sasuke said. "The more I try to make things right with Naruto, the more fucked it becomes. Now I've made him so fucking angry again. He's mad at me though, so don't worry, OK?"

"Naruto's gone," Kiba whispered again. He stood up from the couch and went to the kitchen, retrieving the bottle of Jameson whisky that Chouji had left the last time he had visited.

Kiba poured a double shot into a Collins glass and swallowed all of it at once.

"Hey, it's going to be OK," Sasuke said again. He had come out to the kitchen. "He'll forgive you because you didn't even do anything wrong."

Kiba smiled sadly and poured another double shot, handing it to Sasuke. Sasuke took that glass and drank down the amber-colored liquid, shaking his head at the sharpness of the alcohol.

"Hey, let's not sit around moping," Sasuke said as Kiba poured another double shot and swallowed it. "Come with me, I know a place we can go hang out at."

Kiba nodded and handed him another double shot, which he drank down again. Kiba poured himself a third and then went back to the living room and put his shoes on. Then Sasuke pulled Kiba out of the apartment, made sure he locked the door, and then guided him down the stairs to his dark blue WRX STi, which was parked in the visitor parking spot, its white rims almost blending in the with snow. Kiba got in the passenger seat as Sasuke started the engine and revved it a couple times. The song 'Got the Life' by Korn started pumping out loudly through the speakers as the drove off.

"That CD is so old," Kiba said.

"Yeah, I know, but I like it," Sasuke said, smirking. "And it fits my mood right now."

They drove for a little over a half hour, silently listening to the raucous music coming from the CD player. They were now in the downtown district of the city, and Sasuke pulled off the main road onto a side street.

Kiba was feeling quite light despite Naruto's adverse reaction earlier. He had not had any alcohol since the afternoon that Naruto had found him so drunk after Chouji had visited. The three double shots on his empty stomach had gone straight to his head, dulling the ache he felt from Naruto's disappointment of him and also keeping him oblivious to his own inner thoughts.

Sasuke turned down a couple more streets and finally pulled into a small parking lot that was surrounded by a chain-link fence. The ill-lit parking lot was crowded but there were a couple spots open behind the building, which appeared to be some kind of club, which Kiba suddenly recognized, having ventured there a couple times with Chouji.

"How do you know about this place?" he asked.

"I almost was going to go to school here," the Raven replied slyly. "I did a little research about the area before I decided to go out-of-state for school."

"Ahhhh," Kiba said, feeling very drunk now, but wanted more.

The two walked around the building to the entranceway, where Sasuke spoke quietly to a young boy dressed in black who sat behind a panel of cast iron bars. A quick exchange between the two secured payment of the entrance fees for both boys and they were given bright orange wristbands to wear. Sasuke put his on and them slipped the other onto Kiba's wrist. They were then admitted into the inner club.

"Stay close by me," Sasuke said, taking Kiba's hand in his own. "I don't know what kind of crowd comes here."

"It's mostly harmless," Kiba said, keeping his hand clasped with the Raven's.

They went through the black double door and found a very dark, large open room. There was a bar along the wall immediately to the left as you entered and tables were arranged throughout most of the rest of the room. On the far end of the room, a large stage was lit up with unbelievably bright klieg lights. On the stage, young men danced in very little attire.

"I didn't think you'd be into strip clubs," Kiba said as they walked to an open table that was on the opposite side of the room.

"I can get into most anything if in the right mood," was the reply from the smirking Raven. He pulled Kiba along and the two sat down at the table.

A young waiter arrived a few moments later. He was dressed in black slacks and a black bow tie with a black mask pushed up on his forehead. He asked if they would like anything to drink.

"Aren't you wearing that mask wrong?" Sasuke asked, teasing the waiter.

"Oh, I can't see a damn thing with this on," the waiter replied taking the mask off completely and slamming it down onto the table. "Here, maybe it will do you more good."

"We'll both have double shots of Jameson," Sasuke said, chuckling. "And would you bring be an un-opened bottle of soda water too?"

"Certainly! I'll be right back."

Kiba picked up the mask and held it over his face.

"OOOOOOOooooo," he wailed quietly. "I'm a ghost, Sasuke!"

Sasuke chuckled lightly again and Kiba's silliness. _He's a funny drunk at least_ he thought. _I'm glad he seems to be in a better mood now._

The waiter returned a few minutes later with their drinks, setting them down on the table. Sasuke handed over a credit card and asked the waiter to start a tab for him.

Kiba had his glass of whisky grasped in his hand and was swirling it around inside the glass. He drank it all down a moment later.

"Drink some of this, please," Sasuke said, offering him the bottle of soda water. "I don't want you to get sick."

"Thanks," Kiba said.

After a while the music started playing louder in the club and the seating area became even darker. It was show time now, and the strippers came out onto the stage one by one and danced their way through a couple songs each, discarding their clothes as the songs progressed. Kiba watched, amused. Sasuke had ordered more whisky for them both, and Kiba was now completely drunk.

An old, befuddled looking man had been eyeing Kiba throughout the night from the next table. He was wearing a white suit and his white hair was combed back over his head in a gentlemanly manner. Kiba was turned around in his chair so as to see the stage better, and the old man took the opportunity to lean over and whisper to Kiba.

"Dump your boyfriend, and I'll take you to the moon!" he said feverishly.

Kiba looked at him a moment, a smile coming over his face, before he burst out into loud laughter. Kiba laughed far too loudly and far too inappropriately at the absurd offer from the man, causing him to quickly retreat back to the opposite side of his table. Kiba's entire body shook with laughter a moment longer, until he managed to regain control of himself as Sasuke shook his head in amusement.

"You better come and sit next to me," the Raven said, pulling an empty chair next to his and motioning for Kiba to come sit in it, so that they were now both facing the stage next to each other. The stripper boys were now coming out into the crowd, stopping at tables. A tall, dark haired boy wearing tight black shorts, black leather bands on both wrists, a black collar, and black boots stopped by their table, he talked with Sasuke a moment before moving over to Kiba and sitting on his lap, facing him.

He put his arms over Kiba's shoulders and began grinding his hips against Kiba's. Kiba licked his lips, moving his hands up the boys sides and over his muscled arms. He bent down over Kiba, brushing his spiky, dark hair against Kiba's jaw as he kept grinding on him. After a few minutes, he got up, turned around and sat back against Kiba, now griding his ass against Kiba. Kiba started to get hard immediately, his erection pushing against the cloth of his pants. The boy's hands snaked backward and felt between Kiba's legs, grasping his erection. At the same time, Kiba's hands traveled across the boy's chest, feeling his muscles again.

After a few more minutes the song playing ended and another one started. The boy moved off from Kiba and sat down next to Sasuke again. The two talked quietly for a moment before the boy got up and walked off to the back of the club.

"Did you enjoy that?" Sasuke asked.

"He's pretty fucking hot," Kiba said.

"Hopefully he'll be back soon," the Raven said mysteriously as their waiter returned with two more double shots of Jameson.

Kiba drank down his whisky as did Sasuke. They sat together for about fifteen minutes longer before the stripper boy came back. He whispered to Sasuke and then started to head back to the other side of the club again. Sasuke stood up and pulled Kiba up.

"Come with me," he said, following the dark-haired boy.

"He's sexy," Kiba commented about the stripper. "He kind of looks like you in a way."

"You think so?" Sasuke asked. "I think he looks like you..."

They followed him up a spiral staircase at the back of the club and came out into a long hallway which had doors lining it on each side. They went down to the third door on the right and the boy unlocked the room with a small key. Inside the room were two chairs and a couch. Sasuke had Kiba sit in the chair on the left side of the room and he sat in the one on the right, which was placed slightly closer to the couch.

The stripper boy then straddled Sasuke's hips and began grinding against him. He started unbuttoning the light blue shirt Sasuke was wearing and pushed it off the Raven's shoulders. Kiba saw for the first time Sasuke's chest, and also noticed the tattoo that the Raven had between his left shoulder and his neck of three stylized teardrops enclosed within a circle. Kiba stared at the scene before him, suddenly becoming very aroused. In the dim light, the Raven's pale skin seemed incandescent almost.

Sasuke was grasping the boy's ass with both his hands, pushing him forward against his hips as he was grinding downward. They boy made a movement as if he meant to bend his head down and kiss Sasuke. This caused the Raven to abruptly move his head sideways and the boy ended up kissing his neck instead of his lips.

Sasuke turned his head back with a knowing smirk as the boy reached down and began to unbutton and unzip the jeans Sasuke was wearing. He reached inside and began stroking the Raven's hard member, causing him to moan slightly. Kiba felt his mouth become suddenly dry as he continued to watch, his hand involuntarily moving to his own erection, which was now throbbing in his pants.

He continued watching as Sasuke slid his pants and boxers down off his hips and then grabbed the waistband of the boy's black shorts and tugged them down, pulling them all the way down as far as he could reach. They boy then kicked them off the rest of the way and was now completely naked, sitting on Sasuke's lap. He continued grinding away as he handed Sasuke a condom. The music being pumped through the sound system of the club was also coming out of speakers placed on the ceiling of the room.

"Does your boyfriend want to join us?" the stripper whispered in Sasuke's ear. "Or is he just watching?"

"He'll just watch," Sasuke whispered back.

Kiba's hand was rubbing over himself, and he reached with his other hand to unbutton and unzip his own pants. His hand slipped inside, beneath his boxers and his fingers wrapped around his erection. He began stroking himself as he saw Sasuke tear open the condom wrapper and unroll it onto his hard shaft. He looked up and suddenly noticed that Sasuke's onyx eyes were locked on his causing him to feel self-conscious momentarily and stop touching himself.

The Raven smiled back at him in a reassuring manner, indicating that he wanted Kiba to continue. Kiba's hand went back beneath his boxers again as Sasuke pushed the boy down onto him, impaling him on his erection. After getting used to Sasuke's size, the boy began moving up and down on him, moaning loudly.

Kiba bit his lip and began moving his hand faster along his rigid shaft, now pulling himself free from his clothing and pumping himself vigorously. Sasuke's eyes were still locked to his, as if somehow connected by an invisible cord. Kiba gazed back at him, not breaking the contact. The two boys both began to speed up their motions, Kiba pleasuring himself, and Sasuke thrusting into the boy who was riding him. Sasuke stood up a minute later and moved the boy over to the couch, where he pushed him face-down onto it. He then climbed atop him and began thrusting himself violently in and out of the boy.

The song 'I Wanna Fuck You' by Akon start playing through the speakers. Kiba was still staring into Sasuke's eyes, watching him fucking the stripper. Sasuke still stared back at him as he continued his deep thrusting, now grabbing the boy by both his shoulders. He mouthed the words to the song while still staring at Kiba: _I wanna fuck you_. Kiba became slightly breathless, gripping himself tightly and feeling the orgasm building within him. A perverse smirk lit the Raven's face.

Sasuke began thrusting even hard, if that was possible and deep growl came from his throat. He pulled quickly out of the boy and pulled off the condom as he semen began shooting out from him, landing on the boy's back and ass. Sasuke pumped himself as he continued cumming.

At the sight of Sasuke's orgasm, Kiba was overcome with his own and he gasped as his own semen poured forth, covering his hand and dripping down onto his pants and the floor.

Sasuke had already pulled up his pants and was buttoning his shirt back up. With a quick tilt of his head toward the door, he indicated that Kiba should do the same. Kiba stood up, wiping his hand on his boxers since he had no where else to do it at the moment. He fastened his pants and he and Sasuke headed out the door.

"Thanks, man," Sasuke said as they left the room and headed down the spiral staircase. Sasuke took Kiba's hand again as they went toward the cash register at the bar.

"I'd like to settle my tab," the Raven told the bartender.

"Your name, sir?"

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"All right...you want to keep it on the same card you gave earlier?

"Yes, please."

"You're all set then," the bartender said, handing him a long receipt. "Just sign this please and indicate any gratuity you'd like to leave."

Sasuke scrawled his signature across the bottom of the receipt after writing in a tip. He handed it back to the bartender and was giving another copy for himself. He and Kiba then left the club and went back to Sasuke's car.

Sasuke pulled out onto the street, giving the engine extra gas and causing the rear-wheel drive to spin and make the car slide around the corner almost sideways. Kiba laughed, feeling exhilarated from the experience that had just happened. They drove the rest of the way back to Kiba's apartment in silence.

When they arrived, Sasuke pulled into the visitor parking spot, but didn't turn off the engine.

"Can you get yourself upstairs all right?" he asked. "I'm probably going to head home..."

"You can stay..." Kiba said quietly, "...if you want to."

Sasuke sat in silence, feeling as if he held a katana in his hands, with two choices before him, neither of which felt easy to choose.

"It's late, and you had a lot to drink," Kiba said. "You shouldn't be out driving around anymore."

"Thank you," Sasuke said quietly.

They went upstairs and Kiba took Akamaru downstairs for a few minutes before heading back up. He suddenly realized how tired he was.

When he returned, he found Sasuke already asleep on the couch, his shoes and socks and shirt discarded on the floor. Kiba suddenly felt guilty. He retrieved a blanket from his room and covered up his friend. He then went to his room, closing the door behind him. He changed into a pair of cotton pyjamas and climbed into bed with Akamaru, and soon he was falling into a deep sleep as well.


	19. Chapter 19

**Part XIX**

Naruto had left Kiba's apartment and walked all the way back to his dorm in Eddowes Hall on campus. He stomped into the dorm room and slammed the door, took off his coat and threw it onto his bed, and then looked around as he flopped down onto his bed. Shino was laying on his own bed reading a magazine.

"You're back early," Shino commented. "It's only 7:30...Didn't think I'd see you until tomorrow."

"Yeah, well, things get fucked sometimes," Naruto said, kicking the top bunk above him hard.

"Whoa," Shino said sitting up. "What happened?"

"You know Sasuke, who is supposed to be my best friend?" Naruto said.

"That guy you beat up last year, yeah," Shino said. "Did he do something to Kiba again?"

"No, he and Kiba have been lying to me," Naruto kicked the top bunk again in anger. "Sasuke has been gay his entire life basically and never told me until today."

"What?" Shino asked in disbelief. "I thought you said he had freaked out when you came out to him because he was straight?"

"Yeah, that isn't exactly the case it turns out," Naruto said, sighing. "And I'm so pissed that Kiba would lie to me about something like that.

"What do you mean Kiba lied to you?"

"Sasuke apparently told him before and arranged with Kiba to come here today so he could tell me himself. Kiba didn't say anything to me to prepare me."

"Hmmm," Shino mused thoughtfully. "That's not really his news to tell anyone. I don't know how hard it is for someone to come out because I'm not gay, but it seems like it's something the person dealing with it would think about a long time."

"But something like that," Naruto protested. "Kiba should have known how important that kind of information would be to me. I've known Sasuke since we were very little kids and now suddenly I find out today he isn't who I thought. It really kind of hurt, especially because of how he reacted when I told him about me."

"I understand that, why you would feel hurt," Shino said. "But maybe now isn't the time to dwell on that. If he's just telling you now, obviously he has had some kind of psychological issue with telling you before. From how he reacted to you, I would guess he probably couldn't accept that part of himself at that age in his life, so he ran away from it. Did he make any explanation as to why it took him so long to tell you?"

Naruto looked away at the wall, tracing the masonry lines in the cinder blocks with his finger.

"I kind of didn't give him the opportunity," Naruto said quietly. "I was so pissed I just kind of left."

"Well, didn't you kind of treat him the same way he treated you back in high school then?" Shino asked. "Maybe just a little anyway."

"Shit," Naruto sighed.

At that moment, Shikamaru returned from the showers down the hall. His damp hair hung loosely about his shoulders and he was wearing a dark green sweatshirt and a pair of black athletic shorts. He kicked off his shoes and set down in bag and towel.

"Hey, seems a little morbid in here," he said. "What's up?"

Naruto filled in his other roommate on what had happened earlier that evening. Shikamaru was sitting cross-legged in his desk chair with his eyes closed as he listened to Naruto and Shino continue their talk.

"You said it yourself that you've known each other for most of your lives," Shino said. "Don't you at least then need to let Sasuke make his entire case for why he's just telling you know? And Kiba didn't do anything wrong, maybe he was just being a friend to Sasuke by not saying anything before Sasuke was ready to tell you himself. Remember you said he tried to stop being friends with you but couldn't completely stop? You're important to him, so I'm sure he must be important to you too. At least listen to what he has to say, then decide what to do."

Naruto groaned and pulled a pillow over his head.

"So I guess this time I reacted badly and was a jerk," he said.

"Could I add something?" Shikamaru spoke finally.

"Sure," Naruto said pulling the pillow off his face.

"I think your anger is misplaced, especially your anger toward Kiba," he said. "Shino is right in that regard. Kiba was put in the middle of this situation which maybe was unfair to him, but for whatever reason he decided to help Sasuke, so you should respect his decision. I'm sure he had no intention of causing you any hurt. I also think that you're placing your anger on Kiba and Sasuke, but you aren't really mad at them. You're more angry with the situation, maybe angry of all the lost time you and your friend should have spent sharing things with each other that you haven't. Also, maybe you're a little angry with yourself for not having been able to help Sasuke with his identity the way you think a best friend ought to be able to help. Am I close at all to what you're really thinking?"

"Fuck, Shikamaru," Naruto said after thinking quietly for several minutes. "Why don't you go into psychiatry or something? Do you literally see into people's minds or something?"

"Having keen insight can be bothersome at most times," Shikamaru said. "But if you don't help your friends when they need it, your just kind of an asshole. Your friend seems like he needs you now, so why don't you give him another chance?"

Naruto sighed realizing that he would have to do the right thing and go back and apologize to Sasuke and especially to Kiba. He felt embarrassed at how he had reacted, but was grateful that at least he had two other friends who would be cool enough to let him know when he was being a jerk.

"Thanks, guys," he said. "I guess I could have handled this whole thing better, but I'll make sure to get it right the second time."

"I'm sure it will be all right," Shino said.

"I'm going to bed," Shikamaru said. "Unless anyone wants to play Dynasty Warriors?"

"Hell yes!" Naruto exclaimed. "Let's do it. I need something fun to do."

The three roommates went out to the living room area of their dorm room to play video games, staying up late into the night.

**xXxXx**

Kiba's forehead smashed against the wall, causing him to nearly black out for a moment. He felt a hand grab his hair and violently pull his head backwards, and roughly he was kissed on his mouth, teeth scraping his lips. He was then grabbed and flung sideways, crashing against the other wall of his bedroom and again his head hit against the wall hard.

Sasuke's hands roughly went up Kiba's chest from his stomach up to his neck. The hands grasped the white tank tshirt Kiba was wearing and forcefully ripped it open. Kiba felt teeth biting his shoulder hard, as if they meant to draw blood. The Raven's hands violently explored Kiba's chest, pulling at his pierced nipples causing the other boy to cry out in pain. Biting at the soft skin again, Sasuke's hand when further down the other's body, reaching the fly of the thin, cotton pyjama's he was wearing. The button on the fly easily popped off as Sasuke ripped open the fly, tearing the material easily. His hand reached into the torn pants and grasped Kiba, painfully tugging at him. Kiba again cried out.

The Raven then grasped Kiba's throat tightly and yanked him backward, spinning him around, and shoving him down hard onto the bed. He climbed onto the bed himself overtop of Kiba, unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans and pushing them down off his hips. Kiba tried to move his head but Sasuke shoved it back down on the bed and grasped his arm, twisting it violently behind his back as the other screamed. The Raven then ripped the back of the pyjamas open and positioned his erection over the boy's opening, pushing himself against it roughly.

With one violent thrust, he completely entered Kiba with his full length. Kiba screamed again from the pain, his free hand wildly grasping at the bedding. He felt as if he was going to pass out and everything was going black...

Then he awoke terrified, taking in a huge breath of air. Akamaru looked up at him from where he lay at the foot of the bed. Kiba was sweating all over and still shaking from the wild dream he had just had. He was breathing heavily and motioned for Akamaru to come closer. The dog obeyed and lay down next to his master so their heads were touching. Kiba clung to him, feeling safe next to his big, soft, warm companion.

Akamaru whined to go outside a little while later, so Kiba got out of bed and put on a tshirt. He walked quietly out of his room with Akamaru, who went straight to the door and whined again.

Kiba found the Raven to be still asleep, sprawled out over the entire couch: one foot was sticking out from beneath the blanket, propped up on the arm of the couch, the other leg appeared to be dangling off the couch, hidden in the blanket, his right forearm was laying over his eyes, and his left arm was suspended in the air off the side of the couch.

_He's apparently used to sleeping in a bigger bed_ Kiba thought to himself as he slipped on his sneakers and winter coat.

He took Akamaru out into the yard where the dog poked and romped about for a good ten minutes. They walked back up the snowy steps and returned to the warmth of the apartment. Kiba put his shoes and coat away, gave Akamaru some food and fresh water, and took a canned cappuccino from the refrigerator. He leaned his elbows down on the countertop as he drank, watching Sasuke sleeping.

_He's really handsome_ Kiba thought as his eyes roamed over the boy's form.

His toes, arms, and shoulders that Kiba could see protruding from beneath the blanket looked like they might have been carved from ivory so pale was his skin. His rich, black hair only magnified this effect. He looked very peaceful sleeping in the dawn sunlight that was coming in through the half-opened blinds of the sun room on the opposite side of the living room.

_Peaceful_ thought Kiba. _How different that is from last night at the club...he seemed possessed almost..._

Sasuke began to stir a moment later, a deep groan coming from his mouth, beneath the blanket. Kiba quickly turned around lest the Raven read into being stared at by his best friend's boyfriend while asleep. He quickly began emptying the dishwasher, which had run the previous afternoon.

Sasuke stretched on the couch, waking up more completely, and groaning contentedly at the feeling of stretching his muscles. He sat up a minute later, running his hand through his black hair and looking around. He yawned and stretched again.

"Hey," Kiba said.

"Good morning," Sasuke softly murmured. "Man, this couch is not very comfortable...both of my knees are stiff and my back feels kinked."

"Oh really?" Kiba said. "Everyone tells me that it's very comfortable to sleep on."

"Huh," the Raven said with a quick smirk. "I'd kill for a Pepsi right now, do you have any?"

"Yeah, actually, I do," Kiba said taking a can from the refrigerator.

He came out with it into the living room sitting next to Sasuke on the couch. He handed the soda over to him.

"Thanks," Sasuke said, drinking some of it as they sat in silence for several minutes. "Well, this is kind of awkward, I guess..."

"Why do you feel awkward?" Kiba asked.

"Ummm, you saw me fuck that guy last night," Sasuke said, seeming to be embarrassed about it today.

"Oh," Kiba said. "Well, it wasn't my first time around the block, you know."

"I didn't really think so," Sasuke replied with a small laugh. "But still, it was the first time we had gone out. Maybe you don't have a very high opinion of me now."

"No, I wouldn't judge anyone that way," Kiba said. "I couldn't..."

"That's cool then," the Raven said, setting his soda can down on a coaster.

"Are you hungry?" Kiba asked. "Do you want anything to eat?"

"Maybe some toast in a little bit," he answered. "But you don't have to get it for me. Just tell me where everything is and I can do it. I hate people waiting on me."

"It's OK," Kiba said. "I don't mind."

"No, really," the Raven interrupted. "We had so many servants when I was growing up I could never have any privacy. I hated it and used to run away and find different places to hide."

"I used to hide too," Kiba said. "But for different reasons...my parent's are exactly the best people in the world."

"I see," replied Sasuke. "I don't really like my parents much either. "I can't wait to get away from them completely. My older brother is really cool, but otherwise, I don't really like anyone in my family much at all."

"That's good you have him at least," Kiba said. "I've only Akamaru, but I love him more than my real family."

"I don't think he likes me so well," Sasuke said, chuckling.

"He can be a little stand-offish and sometimes overly protective," Kiba said. "But I can tell he's coming around to you."

Sasuke leaned over to retrieve his soda can for another drink. As he did so, Kiba caught sight of his tattoo again.

"I like your tattoo," he said.

"Oh, thanks," Sasuke answered as he sat back against the couch. "Yours are pretty interesting too."

He lifted his hand up and brushed his fingers across the red fang on Kiba's cheek causing the other to become shy and turn away slightly.

"You must have balls to have gotten them on your face like that. I think it looks really cool though. What did your parents think when they saw it?"

"Enraged," Kiba said, a large grin spreading over his face at the memory. "I was called every name you can think of, but there was nothing they could do. I was eighteen and had paid for it myself. It was really fun. And besides, you can't exactly wash off a tattoo."

"Damn, that's pretty sweet. My parents don't even know about mine. I got it after I went away to school. If my father found out, he'd probably take out a knife and skin me. I guess now though he'd probably just threaten since I could have him arrested for attempted murder if he tried to."

Kiba's phone began ringing in his room just then and he stood up to go answer it. He saw that it was Naruto and a wave of conflicting feelings drifted over him. He picked up the phone and answered it, laying down on the bed to talk.

"Uhhh, hey, Kiba," Naruto said. "It's your dumbass boyfriend."

"Hey, Naruto," Kiba said, a little sadly.

"Kiba, can you forgive me for being so mean to you yesterday?" Naruto pleaded. "I didn't mean it when I said I was mad at you and that you lied to me. I understand now that I acted really stupid, and I'm sorry."

"I should have told you..." Kiba started.

"No, don't say that, you didn't do anything wrong," Naruto cut him off. "If Sasuke had you promise not to say anything, then you did the right thing. I reacted badly. I hope Sasuke isn't too pissed at me. I'm going to call him in a minute, but I wanted to apologize to you first."

"Well, I forgive you. I love you," Kiba said. "Can you come over? Sasuke is here still, maybe you two just talk things out."

"He's there still?" Naruto asked, sounding a bit surprised.

"Yeah, so come over right now, OK? I miss you and want to see you too."

"OK, I'm going to take a quick shower then I'll be over. See you in a few...love you, too.

"Me and you, Pikachu!" Kiba said, repeating the line he had thought the lyric in the song 'Everybody's Warming' sounded like.

Naruto laughed as he hung up and got out of bed to go shower.

Kiba went back out to the living room and told Sasuke that Naruto was coming over and that he wanted to talk to him.

"That's cool," Sasuke said. "I'm glad."

He stood up from the couch, letting the blanket fall down to the floor. He still hadn't put his shirt on from the night before and Kiba looked at his chest, enjoying the muscles and the light amount of hair that grew on the upper part.

"Hey, can I take a quick shower?" he asked. "I should probably clean up, you know? I need to run down to my car to get my clothes though. I'll be right back."

"Dude, everything will be ice cold," Kiba said. "Why didn't you do that last night?"

"Didn't think of it," the Raven replied offhandedly. He pulled on his shoes and threw on his coat and ran out down to his car and returned a moment later with a black duffle bag.

Kiba got out a towel and washcloth for him and he went to take his shower before Naruto arrived.

Sasuke looked scrubbed up and casual in baggy black cargo pants and a white polo shirt which he was wearing over a long-sleeved black, fitted, Nike athletic shirt. He sat down on the couch. Kiba had folded the blanket up and put it back in his room.

"I feel kind of nervous now," Sasuke said with a light chuckle.

"Well, he's going to be here in a minute, you don't have time to run now," Kiba joked.

They sat quietly listening to Kiba's mantle clock tick away the minutes. After a while, Akamaru got up from his spot in front of the fire place and walked over to the door. He gave a tentative bark. Naruto's footsteps were heard a couple seconds later coming up the stairs and Kiba went to the door and opened it. Naruto grabbed Kiba in his arms and kissed him, hugging him tightly.

"Hey, come inside, it's cold out and you're not dressed warmly," Naruto said.

They went back inside and Sasuke stood up from the couch.

"Hey," he said quietly.

Naruto pulled the Raven into a hug and held him tightly.

"I'm sorry for treating you so bad yesterday," Naruto said. "Your my best friend and I'll be here for you whenever you need me, no matter what."

"Thanks, man," Sasuke said. "I'm glad you don't hate me, and I'm sorry I haven't been honest with you all these years. I guess I'm a little more fucked up in my head than I thought."

"Don't worry, Kiba and I are both here to help you now."

"Cool, I'm glad."

"I'm glad you're still here," Naruto said. "I thought you had probably gone home last night. What did you guys do?"

"We just hung out here," Sasuke said quickly before Kiba could say anything. "Had some whisky, and then I passed out on the couch."

"Yeah," Kiba said. "I was kind of sad, so I had some whisky, then I took Akamaru out for a few minutes, and when I came back, Sasuke had fallen asleep. So, Akamaru and I went to sleep too."

"I'm sorry I screwed things up," Naruto said. "I didn't mean to, really."

"It's cool," Sasuke said. "It's fine now. Let's not talk about it anymore."

The three sat around the rest of the day talking, and Kiba made lunch for them. In late afternoon, Sasuke left to go back home, but with the promise to return in a few days to hang out some more.

Naruto had brought some clothes so he could stay over at Kiba's that evening. Shikamaru and Shino had both gone home earlier that day, so he didn't really plan to spend much time at his dorm. As he and Kiba were getting ready for bed, he kissed Kiba gently on his forehead and then his lips.

"Thanks for putting up with me," the blonde said. "I really am sorry."

"Don't worry," Kiba said. "You've put up with a lot more from me."

Naruto climbed into bed under the covers and Akamaru jumped up and snuggled next to him. Kiba had gone to brush his teeth and returned a few minutes later.

"I think..." he said. "I think I want an extra blanket tonight. It's been so cold at night."

"OK," Naruto said with a yawn.

Kiba pulled the blanket that Sasuke had used the previous night from the closet and climbed into bed, wrapping the blanket around himself. He could smell Sasuke's cologne on it, a faint, dry scent that Kiba didn't know the name of.

Akamaru stood up in bed and looked at Kiba. After a minute he went and laid at the foot of the bed and Kiba rolled over to face away from his boyfriend. Naruto, though, wrapped his arm around Kiba and snuggled up to him kissing the back of his neck as they fell asleep.


End file.
